Building States

Building States
Author: Eva-Maria Muschik
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2022-04-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 023155351X

Postwar multilateral cooperation is often viewed as an attempt to overcome the limitations of the nation-state system. However, in 1945, when the United Nations was founded, large parts of the world were still under imperial control. Building States investigates how the UN tried to manage the dissolution of European empires in the 1950s and 1960s—and helped transform the practice of international development and the meaning of state sovereignty in the process. Eva-Maria Muschik argues that the UN played a key role in the global proliferation and reinvention of the nation-state in the postwar era, as newly independent states came to rely on international assistance. Drawing on previously untapped primary sources, she traces how UN personnel—usually in close consultation with Western officials—sought to manage decolonization peacefully through international development assistance. Examining initiatives in Libya, Somaliland, Bolivia, the Congo, and New York, Muschik shows how the UN pioneered a new understanding and practice of state building, presented as a technical challenge for international experts rather than a political process. UN officials increasingly took on public-policy functions, despite the organization’s mandate not to interfere in the domestic affairs of its member states. These initiatives, Muschik suggests, had lasting effects on international development practice, peacekeeping, and post-conflict territorial administration. Casting new light on how international organizations became major players in the governance of developing countries, Building States has significant implications for the histories of decolonization, the Cold War, and international development.

Canadian Foreign Policy, 1955-1965

Canadian Foreign Policy, 1955-1965
Author: Blanchette
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 449
Release: 1977-01-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0773591206

This volume documents the decade in which Canada's influence on world affairs was at its apex, and contains speeches and writings of Lester B. Pearson, Sydney Smith, Howard C. Green and Paul Martin.

Canada and the United Nations

Canada and the United Nations
Author: Colin McCullough
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2017-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0773599991

A nation of peacekeepers or soldiers? Honest broker, loyal ally, or chore boy for empire? Attempts to define Canada’s past, present, and proper international role have often led to contradiction and incendiary debate. Canada and the United Nations seeks to move beyond simplistic characterizations by allowing evidence, rather than ideology, to drive the inquiry. The result is a pragmatic and forthright assessment of the best practices in Canada’s UN participation. Sparked by the Harper government’s realignment of Canadian internationalism, Canada and the United Nations reappraises the mythic and often self-congratulatory assumptions that there is a distinctively Canadian way of interacting with the world, and that this approach has profited both the nation and the globe. While politicians and diplomats are given their due, this collection goes beyond many traditional analyses by including the UN-related attitudes and activities of ordinary Canadians. Contributors find that while Canadians have exhibited a broad range of responses to the UN, fundamental beliefs about the nation’s relationship with the world are shared widely among citizens of various identities and eras. While Canadians may hold inflated views of their country’s international contributions, their notions of Canada’s appropriate role in global governance correlate strongly with what experts in the field consider the most productive approaches to the Canada-UN relationship. In an era when some of the globe’s most profound challenges – climate change, refugees, terrorism, economic uncertainty – are not constrained by borders, Canada and the United Nations provides a timely primer on Canada’s diplomatic strengths.

Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice

Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice
Author: United Nations
Publisher: UN
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2015-08-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9789210016513

The Charter of the United Nations was signed in 1945 by 51 countries representing all continents, paving the way for the creation of the United Nations on 24 October 1945. The Statute of the International Court of Justice forms part of the Charter. The aim of the Charter is to save humanity from war; to reaffirm human rights and the dignity and worth of the human person; to proclaim the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small; and to promote the prosperity of all humankind. The Charter is the foundation of international peace and security.

Divided Together

Divided Together
Author: Ilya V. Gaiduk
Publisher: Cold War International History
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780804782920

Divided Together studies US and Soviet policy toward the United Nations during the first two decades of the Cold War. It sheds new light on a series of key episodes, beginning with the prehistory of the UN, an institution that aimed to keep the Cold War cold. Gaiduk employs previously secret Soviet files on UN policy, greatly expanding the evidentiary basis for studying the world organization. His analysis of Soviet and US tactics and behavior, covering a series of international controversies over security and crisis resolution, reveals how the rivals tried to use the UN to gain leverage over each other during the institution's critical early years.

Canada on the United Nations Security Council

Canada on the United Nations Security Council
Author: Adam Chapnick
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2019-09-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0774861649

As the twentieth century ended, Canada was completing its sixth term on the United Nations Security Council, more terms than all but three other non-permanent members. A decade later, Ottawa’s attempt to return to the council was dramatically rejected by its global peers, leaving Canadians – and international observers – shocked and disappointed. This book tells the story of that defeat and what it means for future campaigns, describing and analyzing Canada’s attempts since 1946, both successful and unsuccessful, to gain a seat as a non-permanent member. It also reveals that while the Canadian commitment to the United Nations itself has always been strong, Ottawa’s attitude towards the Security Council, and to service upon it, has been much less consistent. Impeccably researched and clearly written, Canada on the United Nations Security Council is the definitive history of the Canadian experience on the world’s most powerful stage.

Permanent Missions to the United Nations, No.309

Permanent Missions to the United Nations, No.309
Author: United Nations Publications
Publisher: UN
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2021-02-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9789211014419

This book serves as a directory of the Permanent Missions to the United Nations in New York, as well as a listing of their diplomatic personnel. It also includes information on Observer Offices, Specialized Agencies, and other UN organs and bodies.

The United Nations and Decolonization

The United Nations and Decolonization
Author: Nicole Eggers
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2020-07-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 135104401X

Differing interpretations of the history of the United Nations on the one hand conceive of it as an instrument to promote colonial interests while on the other emphasize its influence in facilitating self-determination for dependent territories. The authors in this book explore this dynamic in order to expand our understanding of both the achievements and the limits of international support for the independence of colonized peoples. This book will prove foundational for scholars and students of modern history, international history, and postcolonial history.

The United Nations: A Very Short Introduction

The United Nations: A Very Short Introduction
Author: Jussi M. Hanhimäki
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2015-05-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0190222727

After seven decades of existence has the UN become obsolete? Is it ripe for retirement? As Jussi Hanhimäki proves in the second edition of this Very Short Introduction, the answer is no. In the second decade of the twenty-first century the UN remains an indispensable organization that continues to save lives and improve the world as its founders hoped. Since its original publication in 2008, this 2nd edition includes more recent examples of the UN Security Council in action and peacekeeping efforts while exploring its most recent successes and failures. After a brief history of the United Nations and its predecessor, the League of Nations, Hanhimäki examines the UN's successes and failures as a guardian of international peace and security, as a promoter of human rights, as a protector of international law, and as an engineer of socio-economic development. This updated edition highlights what continues to make the UN a complicated organization today, and the ongoing challenges between its ambitions and capabilities. Hanhimäki also provides a clear account of the UN and its various arms and organizations (such as UNESCO and UNICEF), and offers a critical overview of the UN Security Council's involvement in recent crises in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Libya, and Syria, and how likely it is to meet its overall goals in the future. Regardless of its obstacles, the UN is likely to survive for the foreseeable future. That alone makes trying to understand the UN in all its manifold - magnificent and frustrating - complexity a worthy task. With this much-needed updated introduction to the UN, Jussi Hanhimäki engages the current debate over the organizations effectiveness as he provides a clear understanding of how it was originally conceived, how it has come to its present form, and how it must confront new challenges in a rapidly changing world. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.