scholarly journals Orient-Occident : Origines mythiques d’un couple réel

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-523
Author(s):  
Thierry Hentsch
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Society ◽  
International Community ◽  
Pressure Groups ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
New Feature ◽  
World Organization ◽  
Multilateral Diplomacy

What the United Nations brought to the International Community during its forty years of life cannot be assessed only by referring to the working of the institution and the success or failures it encountered in dealing with specific questions or crises. The profound and lasting changes in the International Community itself in which it contributed in bringing about must also be taken into consideration. Undoubtedly, the most considerable of these changes, a mutation, in the real sense of the word, was the passage from an international society centered around Europe and North-America in 1945, to a truly world society in 1985, through the process of decolonisation. The United Nations decisively contributed to the spreading of the ideology of decolonisation, to the enactment of an international law of decolonisation and to the use of multilateral diplomacy against colonial powers. Eventually, admission to the United Nations became the visible sign as well as the final step of the attainment of political independence. Another remarkable new feature of the international society of today, closely related to the preceding one, is the importance of groups of states, like the Seventy Seven and the Non Aligned, acting as pressure groups. This new setting was made possible only with the existence of the United Nations, where "group diplomacy" was able to deploy itself and to make the "power of the number" felt. Eventually, the whole present diplomatic game, which is played at the level of the world rather than on a bilateral or regional basis in an always growing number of fields, is a product of development of multilateral diplomacy within the United Nations. It is specially true of the so-called North-South dialogue - or confrontation. The World Organization is now an irreversible fact of international life and a reflection of the present structure of the International Society that it helped to build up. But on the other hand, it is a very novel experiment in a historical perspective. Much is y et to be learned in order to be able to make the best use of the instruments it affords for managing the world community.

Apartheid and the International Community

1974 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-24
Author(s):  
E. S. Reddy
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Community ◽  
Intergovernmental Organizations ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Racial Policy

Rarely has the policy of an individual government attracted as wide attention throughout the world as the racial policy of South Africa. It has been discussed in several organs of the United Nations, in specialized agencies of the United Nations, and in several other international and regional intergovernmental organizations; in the Parliament of many countries; and in numerous non-governmental organizations. A number of countries have broken diplomatic, consular and trade relations with South Africa or refrained from establishing such relations. Actions protesting apartheid have involved hundreds of thousands of people outside Africa. The publications and documents on apartheid fill a good-sized library.

Centralization and Decentralization in the United Nations Economic and Social Activities

1962 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 521-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. R. Malinowski
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Social Activities ◽  
Regional Economic ◽  
Social Fields ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
To Come ◽  
World Organization ◽  
Centralization And Decentralization

The sixteenth session of the General Assembly on December 19, 1961, adopted two complementary resolutions, one on the “Decentralization of the Economic and Social Activities of the United Nations and Strengthening of the Regional Economic Commissions” and the other on “Planning for Economic Development.” The latter, inter alia, recommended the establishment of regional development and planning institutes “closely linked to the respective regional economic commissions.” As in many national administrations, the forces for centralization and for decentralization of the administration of the United Nations programs in the economic and social fields will no doubt continue to operate in the years to come. But the adoption of the resolutions referred to above tips the scale in favor of decentralization. It means recognition of the ascendancy of forces which have become increasingly apparent in the world organization, particularly since the recent strides towards universality of membership.

Hierarchy in practice: Multilateral diplomacy and the governance of international security

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Pouliot
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
International Security ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Pecking Order ◽  
Know How ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Multilateral Diplomacy

AbstractIn today’s world, a significant portion of international security politics is conducted through multilateral channels, often from the halls of international organisations such as the United Nations or NATO. This article theorises and empirically documents the production, reproduction, and contestation of local diplomatic hierarchies that practitioners often call ‘international pecking orders’. According to conventional wisdom in IR, the sources of international hierarchies are primarily structural, stemming from the interstate distribution of (material) capabilities. Yet the growing prevalence of multilateral diplomacy in the governance of international security generates distinctive forms of social stratification organised around a struggle for diplomatic competence. As they pursue their instructions and manage security politics, state representatives posted to international organisations make use of the opportunities and constraints of a given situation and compete for rank through the display of practical know-how. The article illustrates this process by looking at how a key set of multilateral practices lend themselves to pecking order dynamics, fromesprit de corpsto reporting through brokering. By taking the multilateralisation of security politics seriously, the article shows that international hierarchy, far from an unobservable reality, is actually part of parcel of each and every practice that makes the world go round.

Collective Legitimization as a Political Function of the United Nations

1966 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inis L. Claude
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
General Problem ◽  
International System ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Political Function ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
World Organization ◽  
In The Beginning

As the United Nations has developed and as its role in world affairs has been adapted to the necessities and possibilities created and the limitations established by the changing realities of international politics, collective legitimization has emerged as one of its major political functions. By this I mean to suggest that the world organization has come to be regarded, and used, as a dispenser of politically significant approval and disapproval of the claims, policies, and actions of states, including, but going far beyond, their claims to status as independent members of the international system. In this essay I shall undertake to refine and elaborate this rough definition of collective legitimization and to discuss the performance of this role by the United Nations. It is essential in the beginning, however, to provide a foundation by offering some observations about the general problem of political legitimacy.

What Happened to the United Nations Ministate Problem

1977 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-124
Author(s):  
Michael M. Gunter
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Annual Report ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Voting Power ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
To Come ◽  
World Organization

During the past decade, a number of scholarly analyses of the United Nations ministate problem have appeared. This concern is understandable because the dilemma of ministate representation goes to the heart of the malaise increasingly gripping the world organization: How to square formal voting power with the realities of international politics? Indeed, no less of an authority than the late Secretary-General U Thant, in his final Annual Report, warned his reluctant audience that the ministate problem “is likely to become more acute in the years to come.”

Legitimization of National Liberation: The United Nations and Southern Africa

1972 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 36-45
Author(s):  
Yassin El-Ayouty
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
International Aid ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
National Liberation ◽  
General Sense ◽  
The World ◽  
General Assembly Resolution ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
World Organization

In a general sense, legitimization by the United Nations of African wars of national liberation means the recognition by various UN bodies that the struggle against colonialism and apartheid in southern Africa is a legitimate endeavour as far as the purposes and the principles of the UN Charter and other UN declarations are concerned. This international recognition of the African liberation movements is expressed through the offer of international aid and through the invitation of these movements to take part in deliberations at the conferences sponsored by UN agencies. The process of UN legitimization of the African struggle for freedom has been tangibly in the making since December 1960, when the world organization adopted General Assembly Resolution 1514 [XV] - the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries (or the declaration on decolonization).

Restructuring Transnational Mineral Agreements

1979 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel K. B. Asante
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Third World ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The World ◽  
World Economic ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Third World

Within our own generation no less than 70 countries have attained political independence and joined the international community of nation states. Third World countries now command a preponderant majority in the United Nations and other world bodies, yet it is trite knowledge that the attainment of political independence and the proliferation of nation states in the Third World have had little impact on the world economic power structure. Access to the corridors of the United Nations and other international bodies has not necessarily assured effective participation in the shaping and restructuring of the world economic system. After the first flush of exhilaration over political independence, developing countries have now grasped the sobering fact that sovereignty is not synonymous with economic self-sufficiency or development and that the rich industrialized countries still substantially control the production and distribution of the world’s resources. An analysis of European direct investment in Africa shows that by the end of 1967 the former metropolitan powers still dominated investments in their former colonies. (The percentage of the total foreign investments in these African countries held by the former imperial powers is illustrated in table 1.)

United Nations' Role in South Africa: Constraints and Possible Options

1986 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-237
Author(s):  
Shanti Sadiq Ali
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Qualitative Change ◽  
International Community ◽  
Supportive Role ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations System

The principle of the elimination of racism and racial discrimination, of which apartheid is an institutionalised form, has become one of the cornerstones of the international community's concerns. As the community's watchdog, the United Nations has accorded, a high priority to this principle. Article 56 of the United Nations Charter stipulates thatbn ‘all members pledge themselves to take joint action in cooperation with the Organisation for the achievement of the purposes set forth in Article 55’, which includes ‘universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.’ Equally, the concern of the international community has been evident in the progressive evolution of the General Assembly's recommendations, resolutions and decisions, of the relevant international instruments, of its policy of sanctions, albeit by no means satisfactory, and the prominence this principle receives in various UN organs and activities, in particular the programmes undertaken under the Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination. However, the supportive role of the United Nations in the struggle being waged against apartheid within South Africa and Namibia, highly commendable though it is, has unfortunately been considerably weakened by the lack of consensus in dealing with systematic violations of international norms by the Pretoria regime for the maintenance of apartheid, as well as over the strategies to be adopted to resist this unjust and oppressive system. In the specific context of the present structure of the United Nations, particularly the powers given to the Security Council, these divergencies are found to be major constraints as they have the inevitable impact of impeding enforcement measures. As a consequence today, the continuing gulf between international law and reality threatens the very credibility of the world organisation especially as far as its human rights policies with regard to South Africa are concerned. The struggle within the United Nations system against apartheid, inevitably slow moving, nonetheless continues as can be seen from the evolution of measures taken. It will also be seen that the world body, undeterred by persistent disagreements over principle, its interpretation and enforcement, continues to explore possible options in shaping policies to be able to deal more effectively with the scourge of apartheid and thereby strengthen the ethical foundations of the international community and a civilised system of peaceful coexistence. The situation, therefore, though highly complicated, is not entirely hopeless. On the contrary there is room for optimism that meaningful consequences will emerge from these efforts of the United Nations to eliminate apartheid as well as to bring about a qualitative change in and protection of a whole range of human rights.

Politics and Change in the Security Council

1960 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman J. Padelford
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
The World ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
World Organization

It was generally appreciated when the United Nations was created that changes would occur in the international scene and chat over the years these would affect the functioning of the world organization. The UN was indeed constructed for the purpose of dealing with problems of change and for channeling these along peaceful lines. It was expected chat the relationships between the powers would vary, that the membership would grow, and that the issues of peace and security would not be static.

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