International Organization for Standardization

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations.

Founded on 23 February 1947, the organization promotes worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial standards. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and as of 2013 works in 164 countries.

It was one of the first organizations granted general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

Overview

ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, is an independent, non-governmental organization, the members of which are the standards organization of the 164 member countries. It is the world's largest developer of voluntary international standards and facilitates world trade by providing common standards between nations. Nearly twenty thousand standards have been set covering everything from manufactured products and technology to food safety, agriculture and healthcare.

International organization

An international organization is an organization with an international membership, scope, or presence. There are two main types:

International Organization

International Organization is a peer-reviewed academic journal that covers the entire field of international affairs. Subject areas include: foreign policies, international relations, international and comparative political economy, security policies, environmental disputes and resolutions, European integration, alliance patterns and war, bargaining and conflict resolution, economic development and adjustment, and international capital movements.

It is published by the Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International Organization Foundation.

Its current editor is Jon Pevehouse, Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

In a 2005 survey, 1,084 international relations scholars were asked "which journals publish articles that have the greatest impact on the way international relations scholars think about their subject and their work" and to make a nominal list of their top four. Of the 749 scholars who replied, 521 (≈70%) listed IO. International Studies Quarterly was second with 371 (≈50%) responses.

International standard

International standards are standards developed by international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. One prominent organization is the International Organization for Standardization.

Purpose

International standards may be used either by direct application or by a process of modifying an international standard to suit local conditions. The adoption of international standards results in the creation of equivalent, national standards that are substantially the same as international standards in technical content, but may have (i) editorial differences as to appearance, use of symbols and measurement units, substitution of a point for a comma as the decimal marker, and (ii) differences resulting from conflicts in governmental regulations or industry-specific requirements caused by fundamental climatic, geographical, technological, or infrastructural factors, or the stringency of safety requirements that a given standard authority considers appropriate.

International

International mostly means something (a company, language, or organization) involving more than a single country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries. For example, international law, which is applied by more than one country and usually everywhere on Earth, and international language which is a language spoken by residents of more than one country.

Origin of the word

The term international was coined by the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham in his Introduction to Principles of Morals and Legislation, which was printed for publication in 1780 and published in 1789. Bentham wrote: "The word international, it must be acknowledged, is a new one; though, it is hoped, sufficiently analogous and intelligible. It is calculated to express, in a more significant way, the branch of law which goes commonly under the name of the law of nations. The word was adopted in French in 1801.Thomas Erskine Holland noted in his article on Bentham in the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica that "Many of Bentham's phrases, such as 'international,' 'utilitarian,' 'codification,' are valuable additions to our language; but the majority of them, especially those of Greek derivation, have taken no root in it."