Into the Disarmament Decade: A Semi-Personal Memoir

Worldview ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. 5-10
Author(s):  
Homer A. Jack

In April, 1952, I traveled to Lambarene, then in French Equatorial Africa, to try to enlist the leadership of Albert Schweitzer for the cause of world peace. I was disappointed to find him basically unconcerned about world politics, skeptical of the United Nations, indifferent to disarmament, and unwilling even to lend his name to peace efforts. A decade later, in June, 1962, I saw Schweitzer for the last time. He was then a world leader in nuclear disarmament, and my task this time, also unsuccessful, was to discourage his indiscriminate endorsements of some peace efforts which I believed misguided.

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.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1952 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 619-623

IT APPEARS timely to call attention again to the work and objectives of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund. Particularly noteworthy is the trend to use this fund more and more in efforts to help other nations help themselves. Thus the mass attack on tuberculosis, yaws and malaria are, it is hoped, bringing those diseases into proportions where their continued control can be more effectively managed. Similarly, increasing attention is being given to the training of professional and technical personnel. The plans and long-range purpose of the UNICEF have recently been described by Maurice Pate, Executive Director of the fund: "Five years ago, in May 1947, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund received its first pledge of support, a contribution of $15,000,000 from the United States Government. A number of other pledges and contributions soon followed, and procurement of supplies was begun. By the middle of 1948, those supplies were reaching several million children. "Those early beginnings were in the minds of many of us at the recent meeting of the Fund's 26-nation Executive Board (April 22-24), for on that occasion UNICEF's aid was extended to the only remaining area of need in which it had not been operating— Africa, south of the Sahara. "In the Belgian Congo, French Equatorial Africa, Liberia, Togoland, the Cameroons and West Africa, UNICEF, side by side with the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, will soon be working with the governments and people on a number of child-health projects. The largest of these is to be an attack on kwashiokor, a dietary deficiency disease that affects thousands of young children in these regions.


Author(s):  
Susan Park

This chapter examines the role that international organizations play in world politics. It explains what international organizations are, whether we need international organizations in international relations, and what constraints and opportunities exist for international organizations to achieve their mandates. The chapter also considers the reasons why states create international organizations and how we can analyse the behaviour of such organizations. Two case studies are presented: the first is about the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the G77, and the second is about the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the interests of money-centre banks. There is also an Opposing Opinions box that asks whether international organizations suffer from a ‘democratic deficit’.


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