The Soviet Union and the United Nations: the Changing Role of the Developing Countries

1970 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
George A. Brinkley

WithRespect to its international prospects the leadership of the Soviet Union entered this decade with enthusiasm; it is ending the decade on a note of disillusionment. And there is no area in which this phenomenon is more striking than that of the triangular relationship among the Soviet Union, the United Nations and the emerging “third world.” Both the “ups” and the “downs” of this relationship are to some extent attributable to the remarkable influence (and abrupt departure) of a single dynamic and quixotic personality, Nikita Khrushchev. Associated with his rise and fall, however, were objective historical factors which had a significant impact on the course of Soviet foreign relations. Read in the context of the origins and development of Soviet attitudes on international organization and on the role expected of nations liberated by the downfall of imperialism, this decade may well have marked a turning point in history. The outcome is not yet clear, but it is evident that Soviet policy has gone through another of those remarkable shifts from optimistic certainty to pragmatic reassessment which have marked historic moments in the past. The transition is both interesting and instructive.

Book Reviews: The Pure Theory of Politics, The Nature and Limits of Political Science, Social Science and Political Theory, in Defence of Politics, The Theory of Political Coalitions, The British Political Elite, Amateurs and Professionals in British Politics, 1918–59, London Government and the Welfare Services, Local Government Today … and Tomorrow, Public Expenditure: Appraisal and Control, The Lessons of Public Enterprise, Nationalization: A Book of Readings, Income Distribution and Social Change, The Northern Ireland Problem: A Study in Group Relations, Report of the Joint Working Party on the Economy of Northern Ireland, Economic Planning in France, The French Army: A Military-Political History, The Trial of Charles De Gaulle, Torture: Cancer of Democracy, Communism and the French Left, Algeria and France: From Colonialism to Cooperation, Der Fascismus in Seiner Epoche, The Soviet Union and the German Question, September 1958–June 1961, Indivisible Germany: Illusion or Reality?, Government and Politics of Contemporary Berlin, The Struggle for Germany, 1914–1945, Reunification and West German-Soviet Relations: The Role of the Reunification Issue in the Foreign Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1949–1957 with Special Attention to Policy toward the Soviet Union, City on Leave: A History of Berlin, 1945–1962, Berlin: Success of a Mission?, Federalism, Bureaucracy, and Party Politics in Western Germany: The Role of the Bundesrat, The Sickle under the Hammer: The Russian Socialist Revolutionaries in the Early Months of Soviet Rule, Political Ideology, Small Town in Mass Society, Government of the Atom: The Integration of Powers, Science and Politics, The Mind of Africa, The Challenge of Africa, Arab Nationalism: An Anthology, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798–1939, Village Government in India, Politics in Southern Asia, Modern Government, The Making of Foreign Policy: An Analysis of Decision-Making, The Politics of Italian Foreign Policy, Politics in the Twentieth Century, Vol. I: The Decline of Democratic Politics, Vol. II: The Importance of American Foreign Policy, Vol. III: The Restoration of American Politics, Power and the Pursuit of Peace, Unarmed Victory, Great Britain or Little England, The General Says No, The United Nations, The United Nations Reconsidered, World Economic Agencies, Communist Economy under Change, The Communist Foreign Trade System, Trade Blocs and Common Markets, The Economics of Middle Eastern Oil, Oil Companies and Governments

1964 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-140
Author(s):  
George E. Gordon Catlin ◽  
M. C. Albrow ◽  
Graham Wootton ◽  
W. J. M. Mackenzie ◽  
J. Blondel ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Elizaveta Aleksandrovna Martyukova

This research is dedicated to the analysis of the role of the Soviet Union in the United nations on settling the Greek conflict (late 1947 – 1951), which drew the attention of international community. The article covers the process of curtailing the UN programs due to deterioration of relations between the USSR and the United States in the conditions of active bipolar confrontation, which involved Greece. The goal lies in examination of the approaches, tactics, and nature of the Soviet delegation in the United Nations on resolution of the international and regional crises. Based on the documentary materials of the Security Council and General Assembly of the United Nations, assessment is given to the results of the efforts undertaken by the Soviet government on settling the Greek conflict. The scientific novelty consists in comprehensive examination of the positions of the USSR in UN on settling the Greek conflicts using the relatively unknown documentary materials of the United Nations. In the scientific literature, this topic has not previously become the subject of special research. The author reveals the method of settlement of the Greek conflict. Having compared the positions of the parties to the conflict, the author describes the course of political struggle around making final decisions on resolution of the complicated and controversial Greek conflict. The conclusion is made the achieved results were not satisfactory for all parties, since their interests differed. Overall, the UN played a positive role as an international arbiter, since the critical war stage of the Greek conflict has been ceased, and the conflict has been localized with the active participation of the United Nations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 399-413
Author(s):  
Rizal Abdul Kadir

After twenty-two years of negotiations, in Aktau on August 12, 2018, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia, and Turkmenistan signed the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea. The preamble of the Convention stipulates, among other things, that the Convention, made up of twenty-four articles, was agreed on by the five states based on principles and norms of the Charter of the United Nations and International Law. The enclosed Caspian Sea is bordered by Iran, Russia, and three states that were established following dissolution of the Soviet Union, namely Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.


1992 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-281
Author(s):  
Robert Siekmann

Especially as a consequence of the termination of the Cold War, the détente in the relations between East en West (Gorbachev's ‘new thinking’ in foreign policy matters) and, finally, the disappearance of the Soviet Union, the number of UN peace-keeping operations substantially increased in recent years. One could even speak of a ‘proliferation’. Until 1988 the number of operations was twelve (seven peace-keeping forces: UNEF ‘I’ and ‘II’, ONUC, UNHCYP, UNSF (West New Guinea), UNDOF AND UNIFIL; and five military observer missions: UNTSO, UNMOGIP, UNOGIL, UNYOM and UNIPOM). Now, three forces and seven observer missions can be added. The forces are MINURSO (West Sahara), UNTAC (Cambodia) and UNPROFOR (Yugoslavia); the observer groups: UNGOMAP (Afghanistan/Pakistan), UNIIMOG (Iran/Iraq), UNAVEM ‘I’ and ‘II’ (Angola), ONUCA (Central America), UNIKOM (Iraq/Kuwait) and ONUSAL (El Salvador). UNTAG (Namibia), which was established in 1978, could not become operational until 1989 as a result of the new political circumstances in the world. So, a total of twenty-three operations have been undertaken, of which almost fifty percent was established in the last five years, whereas the other half was the result of decisions taken by the United Nations in the preceding forty years (UNTSO dates back to 1949). In the meantime, some ‘classic’ operations are being continued (UNTSO, UNMOGIP, UNFICYP, UNDOF, and UNIFIL), whereas some ‘modern’ operations already have been terminated as planned (UNTAG, UNGOMAP, UNIIMOG, UNAVEM ‘I’ and ‘II’, and ONUCA). At the moment (July 1992) eleven operations are in action – the greatest number in the UN history ever.


Author(s):  
Justin Morris

This chapter analyzes the transformational journey that plans for the United Nations undertook from summer 1941 to the San Francisco Conference of 1945 at which the UN Charter was agreed. Prior to the conference, the ‘Big Three’ great powers of the day—the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom—often struggled to establish the common ground on which the UN’s success would depend. However, their debates were only the start of the diplomatic travails which would eventually lead to the establishment of the world organization that we know today. Once gathered at San Francisco, the fifty delegations spent the next two months locked in debate over issues such as the role of international law; the relationship between the General Assembly and Security Council; the permanent members’ veto; and Charter amendment. One of modern history’s most important diplomatic events, its outcome continues to resonate through world politics.


Author(s):  
Zanda Gūtmane

The paper is devoted to a parallel description of the literary processes in the Soviet Union and Soviet Latvia during Nikita Khrushchev’ reign, also known as the period of political thaw or the liberalisation of the communist regime (1953–1964). The main object of the research is the literary magazine Inostrannaja literatura (Иностранная литература), issued in the Soviet Union since 1955, dedicated to foreign literature and its translations; the principles of creating its content and structure during the political thaw period. The aim of the research: with concrete examples, to show the role of this legendary Russian literary periodical in the Iron Curtain period, expansion of freedom of thought, decanonization of socialist realism dogmas in general in the USSR, and also in the Latvian SSR. The methodological basis of the research consists of a comparative literature approach and a new historicism position that the literary text is important in studying different lines of history. The analysis of the publications clearly shows the replacement of the so-called periods of thaw and freezing. The article proves that the appearance of translations, reviews, previews, and research articles of foreign literature in this journal is closely connected with various political peripeteia of the USSR. In Latvia, there is a great resonance of Inostrannaja literatura, and it had an eventual influence on overcoming the dogmas of socialist realism in Latvian literature. The publications about the journal in Latvian literary editions and the study of the reception of one text example, a comparison of various editions of the writer Ēvalds Vilks’s (1923–1976) story “Twelve Kilometers”, prove it.


1965 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-502
Author(s):  
Leon Gordenker

International, the flooding stream of words from national governmental representatives in international organizations has been accompanied by only a trickle of scholarly studies. These include the Carnegie Endowment's valuable series of studies of national policies in the UN, most of which are now outdated. The series does not have a volume on the USSR. The most extended and valuable recent attempt to fathom Soviet policy in the United Nations is Alexander Dallin's The Soviet Union at the United Nations (New York 1962). It deals with broader subject matter than the two books discussed here and gives much consideration to Soviet policy in relation to the maintenance of peace and security.


1957 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quincy Wright

The military interventions initiated by Israel, the United Kingdom, and France in Egypt and by the Soviet Union in Hungary, during October and November, 1956, have different historical backgrounds and different political purposes. They may have been politically connected with one another, and in any case they were connected by the fact that they occurred at the same time and were all dealt with by the United Nations. It is the purpose of this article to examine the legal justification for these interventions with only the minimum historical background necessary for that purpose. The criteria for aggression which the writer developed in the July, 1956, number of this Journal will be assumed and for their justification the reader is referred to that article.


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