The Essential UN

HISTORY

The idea of a peaceful world community

Although the United Nations came into being during the Second World War (1939–1945), the ideal of a community of nations living in peace was conceived much earlier. In 1795, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant developed the idea of perpetual peace, a doctrine based on what we now call the rule of law. He advocated that nations establish a peaceful world community, not through a global government, but with each country becoming a free State respectful of its citizens and foreign visitors, thus promoting a peaceful society worldwide.

With this idea, Kant not only influenced philosophical and political thinking, he also sparked the development of international law and the creation of institutions such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (established in 1889, a forerunner to the League of Nations and, today, a Permanent Observer at the United Nations). His influence is likewise clearly visible in the Fourteen Points speech given by American President Woodrow Wilson to the United States Congress on 8 January 1918, which included the first mention of the League of Nations.

The League of Nations

The League of Nations was set up in 1919, following the First World War. It was officially established when 44 countries signed the Covenant of the League of Nations, the first part of the Treaty of Versailles.

The main objective of the League of Nations was to keep world peace by promoting disarmament, preventing war through collective security, settling disputes between countries through negotiation and diplomacy and improving global welfare.

However, the League had certain fundamental weaknesses. If States involved in a dispute chose to ignore the League’s decisions, the League could introduce economic sanctions; since it did not have a military force, it had no way of enforcing those decisions.

In addition, not all countries were members of the League of Nations. The United States, for example, was never a member, despite President Wilson’s efforts and involvement in the League’s creation. Other States that had joined later quit, and the League often failed to take action when necessary.

Despite these weaknesses, the League of Nations was able to resolve some disputes and stop some local wars. It successfully intervened in the dispute between Sweden and Finland over the Aaland Islands (1921) and stopped Greece’s invasion of Bulgaria (1925). However, it was ineffective in preventing or stopping powerful nations from fighting. When Italy invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935, the League condemned the act of aggression and imposed sanctions, but the sanctions had no impact. Moreover, the League was powerless in the face of events leading up to the Second World War.

Though it did not succeed, the League of Nations initiated the dream of a universal organization. Its successor was the United Nations, which inherited the assets and property of the dissolved League, worth approximately $22 million in 1946, including the Palais des Nations in Geneva (Switzerland) and the League’s archives.

Creation of the United Nations

The idea of the United Nations was born during the Second World War. Allied world leaders who had collaborated to end the war felt a strong need for a mechanism that would help bring peace and stop future wars. They realized that this was possible only if all nations worked together through a global organization. The United Nations was to be that organization.

Declaration of St. James’s Palace

In June 1941, London was the home of nine exiled governments. The resilient British capital had already endured months of war, and in the bomb-marked city, air-raid sirens wailed all too frequently. Practically all of Europe had fallen to the Axis Powers, and ships on the Atlantic carrying vital supplies sank with grim regularity. But in London itself, and among the Allied governments and peoples, faith in the ultimate victory remained unshaken.

On 12 June 1941, representatives of Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa; the exiled governments of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Yugoslavia; and General de Gaulle, leader of the Free French, met at the ancient St. James’s Palace and signed a declaration, which states:

The League of Nations at its opening session in Geneva. ■

UN PHOTO/JULLIEN

The only true basis of enduring peace is the willing cooperation of free peoples in a world in which, relieved of the menace of aggression, all may enjoy economic and social security; It is our intention to work together, and with other free peoples, both in war and peace, to this end.

Declaration of St. James’s Palace

The Atlantic Charter

Two months later, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met somewhere at sea—the same sea on which the desperate Battle of the Atlantic was being fought—and on 14 August 1941, issued a joint declaration known in history as the Atlantic Charter.

In eight main points, the Atlantic Charter outlined a vision for a post-war settlement:

■No territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United Kingdom.

■Territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned.

■All peoples had a right to self-determination.

■Trade barriers were to be lowered.

■There was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare.

■Participants would work for a world free of want and fear.

■Participants would work for freedom of the seas.

■There was to be disarmament of aggressor nations and a post-war common disarmament.

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It should be noted that the document emphasized that both victor [and] vanquished would be given market access on equal terms. This was a direct refusal to weaken the defeated nations’ economies with punitive sanctions, like those that had been imposed on Germany after the First World War and that are believed to have been partially responsible for igniting the Second World War.

At the subsequent meeting of the Inter-Allied Council in St. James’ Palace in London on 24 September 1941, the governments of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and representatives of General de Gaulle unanimously adopted adherence to the common principles of policy set forth in the Atlantic Charter.

Declaration by United Nations

On New Year’s Day 1942, representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and China signed a short document known as the Declaration by United Nations. The next day, representatives of 22 other nations added their signatures. This important document pledged the signatory governments to the maximum war effort and bound them against making a separate peace.

Three years later, when preparations were being made for the San Francisco Conference, only those States that had declared war on the Axis powers and subscribed to the Declaration by United Nations by March 1945 were invited to take part.

Signing of the Declaration by United Nations (1 January 1942). ■

UN PHOTO

Moscow and Tehran conferences

By 1943, the Allies were committed to creating a world in which people in all lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want. But the basis for a world organization had yet to be defined. On 30 October 1943, Vyacheslav Molotov, Anthony Eden and Cordell Hull—foreign ministers of, respectively, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States—together with Foo Ping Shen, the Chinese Ambassador to the Soviet Union, signed the Moscow Declaration, which recognizes the necessity of establishing at the earliest practicable date a general international organization, based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all peace-loving States, and open to membership by all such States, large and small, for the maintenance of international peace and security.

In December 1943, the American, British and Soviet leaders, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, met in Tehran, the capital of Iran, and declared that they had worked out concerted plans for final victory.

Dumbarton Oaks and Yalta

The principles of the world organization-to-be were thus laid down. The structure was discussed at a business-like conference at Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, D.C.) in the autumn of 1944 by representatives of China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States. On 7 October 1944, the four powers submitted a proposal for the framework of the world organization to all the United Nations governments and to the peoples of all countries for their study and discussion.

According to the Dumbarton Oaks proposals, four main bodies were to constitute the organization to be known as the United Nations:

■A General Assembly composed of all the members, with an Economic and Social Council working under its authority.

■A Security Council of 11 members, five permanent and six chosen from the remaining members by the General Assembly to hold office for two years.

■An International Court of Justice.

■A permanent Secretariat.

The essence of the plan was that the Security Council would be responsible for preventing future wars. The General Assembly would study, discuss and make recommendations in order to promote international cooperation and adjust situations likely to impair welfare. It would consider problems of cooperation in maintaining peace, security and disarmament. However, it would not make recommendations on any matter being considered by the Security Council.

Another important feature of the Dumbarton Oaks plan was that Member States were to place armed forces at the disposal of the Security Council in its task of preventing war and suppressing acts of aggression. The absence of such force, the organizers generally agreed, had been a fatal weakness in the League of Nations machinery for preserving peace.

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