Functional theory in international organization, as James Patrick Sewell has observed, asserts that “the most desirable route to international community-building proceeds gradually from initial transnational cooperation in the solution of common problems.” In restating the theory in a series of operational propositions Sewell formulates three “conditions” of functional “international activities”: 1) They are “specific in their focus,” i.e., organized to attack some concrete problem or set of problems; 2) they are “non-controversial,” i.e., concerned with problems which can in some way be set apart as nonpolitical; and 3) they are organized “separately from each other and from international political organs.”