Wartime Origins and the Future United Nations

Dan Plesch, Thomas Weiss, Dan Plesch, Thomas G. Weiss

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781134668809
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politique et relations internationales
• Subtopic: Politique

The creation of the UN system during World War II is a largely unknown or forgotten story among contemporary decision makers, international relations specialists, and policy analysts.

This book aims to recover the wartime history of the United Nations and explore how the forgotten past can shed light on a possible and more desirable future. To achieve this, each chapter takes three snapshots:

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• "Then, " the imaginative and transnational thinking about solutions to post-war problems demonstrated a realization that victory in WW II required an intergovernmental "system" with enough power and competence to work—that is, the UN was not established as a liberal plaything and public relations ploy but rather as a vital necessity for post-war order and prosperity.

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• "Now, " which often seems a pale imitation of wartime thinking that nonetheless reflects a growing and widespread recognition of the fundamental disconnect between the nature of trans-boundary problems and current solutions seen as feasible by 193 UN member states.

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• "Next steps, " or the collective wisdom about the range of new thinking and new institutions that, in fact, may well have antecedents in wartime thinking and experimentation and could be labelled blue-prints for a "third generation" of intergovernmental organizations.

This work will be essential reading for all students and scholars of the United Nations, International Organizations and Global Governance.

Index

ACPFR (Advisory Committee on Problems in Foreign Relations) 25, 27

African Union 84

Anderson, John 104

Annan, Kofi 8, 48; DPI 38, 48–49, 51; MDGs 48; public diplomacy 38

Anstee, Margaret Joan xiii–xvi, 118

ARA (American Relief Administration) 100

Arab League 84, 209

Arab Spring 11

Arizpe, Lourdes 30

Arrow, Kenneth 172

Atkinson, Henry 128–129, 131

Atlantic Charter 1, 125–126, 140

Avenol, Joseph 21, 25, 142

Barrett, Scott 206

BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) 42

Berle, Adolf 17

Bhagavan, Manu 7–8, 121–135

Boyd Orr, John 183, 184, 189, 191

Browne, Stephen 8–9, 139–159

Bruce, Stanley Melbourne 26–27, 34, 181, 184, 185; Bruce Committee 25–26; Bruce report 25, 26–27, 142, 146–147; FAO 27, 181, 184, 185 (World Food Council 27); see also postwar planning

Bull, Hedley 213

Burley, John 8–9, 139–159

Butler, Rab 58

BWS (Bretton Woods System) 9–10, 145, 160–178; BW2 (Bretton Woods 2) 161, 163; China 160–162, 163; developing country 163; failure 161, 172; imbalance 174; origins 164; unsustainable system 161–163; US deficit/China balancing surplus 160–162; US hegemony 161; BW3, need of 172–173; developing country 165, 167–170, 172–173, 174–176; exchange rate 164; failure 172; global financing system/order 163, 170–171, 173; ICU 166; implementation 170–171; India 10, 167, 168–169; Keynes, John Maynard 10, 166, 167, 168–169; League of Nations, legacy 169; multilateral economic surveillance 169; success 170, 171, 176; UK 168, 171; UN Monetary and Financial Conference 10, 141, 144, 164, 167–171, 176, 179 (commissions 167, 168); US dollar 166, 171; US hegemony 170, 171; U...