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Delian League had a common military force, budget (treasury
was in the sanctuary of Apollo on the isle of Delos, later – in Athens),
and the judicial system. The most important problems related to the
union were solved at general meeting which also elected the union
leadership (Council of Elders, Ellinotamies). All the members of the
League had an equal right to vote on the issues of its operation.
Further complicating of the system of international relations took
place in the Middle Ages and in modern times. Thus, in the 13
th
century, Hansa emerged, which was a German trade association of
independent city-states, whose tasks included:
1) Development of trade in the basins of the North and Baltic
seas;
2) Protection of member cities rights against the attacks of feudal
aristocracy;
3) Fighting piracy.
Map 2. Main trading routes of the Hanseatic League
Hansa had a common legislation, treasury, sales offices, and
warehouses in different parts of Europe (Bergen, Bruges, London, and
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Novgorod), the navy and even waged wars against other states.
At various times, it included as many as about 200 members. The
most important issues of this association were decided at the annual
convention (Hansetag) in its center, the city of Luebeck. The activity of
Hansa lasted until the early 17
th
century.
Test Your Knowledge
1. Outline the historical background of the emergence of the
first IOs.
2. Characterize the following IOs of Antiquity and the Middle
Ages:
A) Delian League;
B) Hansa.
Unit 4.2. Modernity and Contemporaneity. However, modern
scholars distinguish four periods of IOs evolution:
1) The 19
th
century, when the first IOs of modern type emerged;
2) Period between the two world wars, when the attempts were
made to organize an international political cooperation on a global
scale (the League of Nations, ILO, WHO);
3) First decades after the end of World War II (UN);
4) Since the beginning of the 1960s, when the massive
emergence of new states instead of the former colonial empires took
place alongside with the establishment of new IOs.
An international association with many features of modern IGOs
was the Holy Alliance, established in 1815, whose task was to protect
the principle of legitimacy and to fight revolutionary movement. In the
course of time all the monarchical states of continental Europe joined
this association. Critical issues related to the functioning of the Holy
Alliance were resolved at its congresses in Aachen (1818), Troppau
(1820), Laibach (1821), and Verona (1822).
In 1818, the development of international trade in Europe led to
the formation of the Commission for Navigation on the Rhine River, an
international organization whose objectives were:
1) Regulation of trade and tariffs on the Rhine, one of the main
navigable rivers of Europe;
2) Establishing rules and regulations to ensure freedom of
navigation on the Rhine common for all members of the Commission;
3) Settlement of disputes between member states.
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In 1821, a similar commission was set up to regulate trade and
navigation on the Elba River and in 1856 – on the Danube.
In many ways revealing is the history of the International
Telegraph Union emergence at the international conference in Paris, in
1865, with the participation of twenty nations. This was preceded by the
establishment of the Telegraph Union in 1850, which included the
German-speaking nations of Europe and the Netherlands. In 1855, it
took shape of the Telegraphic Union of Western Europe including
Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. Finally, the rapid
development of communications of this kind has revealed the need to
organize a broader association which occurred at the Paris conference.
One of the first organizations fully complying with modern
concepts of IGOs became the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the
establishment of which was initiated at the conference in Paris in 1863
convening on the initiative of the US Post Office. The UPU finally took
shape in 1874 and besides the European countries it included the
United States and Egypt. The organization bears its current name
since 1878 and from 1948 it is one of the UN specialized agencies.
One of the key points of the evolution of the IOs system was the
creation of the League of Nations in 1919, which was stipulated by the
Treaty of Versailles. Its objectives were the following:
1) Development of the new rules of conduct in the international
arena in order to prevent global conflicts similar to World War I;
2) Establishing a mechanism of collective security.
Fig. 1. Geneva, Palace of Nations; the League of Nations headquarters
from 1936 until its dissolution in 1946
43
The governing bodies of the League of Nations were the
Assembly and the Council which consisted of four permanent
members (Britain, France, Italy, and Japan) and four non-permanent
ones, elected every three years. The structure of the League of
Nations also included the Permanent Court of International Justice
designed to resolve disputes and conflicts between its members on
the basis of international law. At various times, 63 states were
members of the League.
In a relatively stable international environment of the 1920s the
League of Nations successfully dealt with such international issues, as
territorial disputes between Sweden and Finland because of the Aland
Islands, between Turkey and Iraq – because of Mosul, the promotion
of international economic relations, protection of minority rights,
refugee assistance, etc.
In 1919, the International Labor Organization (ILO) was added to
the structure of the League which in the interwar period played a
significant role in protecting workers’ rights and improvement of the
working legislation in a number of countries. In particular, the
introduction of the 8-hour working day in some countries, the adoption
of measures to curb child labor, and protection of the rights of women
workers may be attributed to the ILO. This organization, which joined
the UN system in 1946, exists to this day.
The most important decisions of the League of Nations were
based on the principle of unanimity which greatly reduced the
effectiveness of the organization and ultimately led to the outbreak of
World War II. For example, in 1931, when Japan attacked China and
annexed Manchuria, the League refused to intervene without the
participation of the United States, thus leaving this clear violation of
international law unpunished. After Adolf Hitler came to power in
1933, Germany committed itself to the revision of the VersaillesWashington system of international relations and left the League of
Nations. Nothing was done to oppose the Italian aggression against
Ethiopia in 1935 because of concerns about the possibility of the
German-Italian deal. After expulsion of the USSR from the League of
Nations in 1939, the organization finally lost control of major
international conflicts. As a result, the prestige of the League was
undermined and it was finally dissolved in April 1946, transferring its
assets and liabilities to the United Nations.
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The historical significance of the League of Nations is the
following:
1) It was virtually the first global IGO which for the first time in
human history dealt with such a wide range of international problems;
2) Experience of the League, although mostly negative, formed
the basis of the system of international relations in the postwar period.
Test Your Knowledge
1. Give the periodization of the history of IOs.
2. Characterize the following IOs of the 19
th
century:
A) Commission for Navigation on the Rhine River;
B) International Telegraph Union;
C) Universal Postal Union.
Topics for Discussion
1. “Holy Alliance” – a predecessor of the IGOs of modernity.
2. League of Nations – the first truly global IGO.
3. Effect of the changes in the system of international relations
after World War II on the evolution of IOs.
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Chapter V
United Nations
Unit 5.1. Definition and Some Aspects of the Organization's History.
The United Nations (UN) is a global international intergovernmental
organization whose tasks include:
1) Maintenance of international peace and security;
2) Protection of human rights;
3) Promoting social and economic progress;
4) Environment protection;
5) Humanitarian assistance in case of natural disasters, famine,
and armed conflicts.
The United Nations may include only the independent states –
subjects of international law recognized as such by global community.
Nowadays, the organization consists of 193 member states and two
members (Switzerland and the Vatican) having observer status. The main
UN Headquarters is located in New York (USA). Headquarters and
offices of the United Nations bodies and specialized agencies are located
also in Berne, Geneva, The Hague, London, Madrid, Nairobi, Paris,
Rome, Vienna, and Washington. The official languages of the
organization are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.
Table 3
The Number of the UN Member States
Year Number of
Member States
1945 51 1979 152
1949 59 1989 159
1959 83 2000 189
1969 126 2007 193
Source: Basic Facts about the United Nations 2014. N.Y.: United Nations
department of Public Information, 2014. P. 277–78.
Year Number of
Member States
The detailed plan for a global IGO to replace the discredited
League of Nations was developed in 1939 on the initiative and under
the auspices of the US State Department. The term “United Nations”
was proposed during World War II by the US President Franklin D.
Roosevelt to designate the anti-Hitler coalition and first used officially
in the Declaration of the United Nations signed on 1 January 1942.
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The idea of establishing the United Nations was articulated at the
Moscow Conference of the Allied foreign ministers, the United States,
USSR, Great Britain, and China (The Moscow Declaration, Point 4,
October–November 1943), and at the conference of the Allied leaders
in Tehran (the United States, USSR, and Great Britain, November–
December 1943). At the Dumbarton Oaks Conference (USA, August–
October 1944), the representatives of the USA, USSR, Britain, and
China agreed on the aims of the United Nations, its structure, and the
conditions of membership in it. At the Yalta (Crimea) Conference
(February 1945), the Allied leaders decided to allow the nations which
had joined the anti-German and anti-Japanese coalition by 1 March
1945, a free entry into the organization.
In April–June 1945, the international conference took place in
San Francisco (USA) with the participation of the representatives of
fifty nations, as well as those of several influential international bodies,
in the course of which the UN Charter was adopted on 26 June 1945.
It was envisaged that it will enter in force after its ratification by the
supreme legislative bodies of the United States, Soviet Union, Britain,
France, and China, as well as the parliaments of the most of the other
states participating in the conference, which were joined by Poland on
15 October 1945.
The UN Charter came into force on 24 October 1945, and this
date is being celebrated worldwide ever since as the International Day
of the United Nations. There were 51 member states in the
organization at the time of its establishing.
In December 1945, the US House of Representatives and Senate
unanimously adopted a decision on the deployment of the main UN
Headquarters in the United States. The leadership of the organization
had adopted this requirement having agreed to place its Headquarters
in New York.
The deterioration of the American-Soviet relations which occurred
since the beginning of the Cold war became an obstacle to the
effective operation of the United Nations peacekeeping and the
prevention of the armed conflicts. The only exception which may be
noted was a Security Council resolution endorsing the interference of
the international coalition led by the United States with the Korean
War, which was made possible only because of Soviet boycott of the
UN Security Council activities at this time.
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Fig. 2. United Nations Headquarters in New York City, USA
A resolution 181 of 1947 may also be mentioned as an example
of the United Nations success in the early years of its existence, which
implied the partition of Palestine and the establishment of the Arab
and Jewish states in its territory. In 1949, a truce was arranged in the
first Arab-Israeli war, with the United Nations participation, which was
followed by the partition of Palestine and the establishment of Israel.
However, the United Nations could do nothing to prevent the Soviet
invasion of Hungary in 1956.
The dramatic acceleration of decolonization and the emergence
of a large number of independent states on the ruins of the former
colonial empires at the turn of 1950–60s caused significant changes in
the balance of power within the United Nations. Thus, the adoption of
the Joint Declaration of 77 on 15 June 1964 marked the beginning of
the so-called “Group of 77” activities, which included developing
countries seeking to transform the United Nations into a platform to
defend their economic and political interests in the international arena.
Nowadays, the group includes 133 countries.
A consequence of the balance of power change within the United
Nations was weakening of the United States within the organization.
One of the manifestations of this phenomenon was the removal of the
representative of the Republic of China on Taiwan led by the
Kuomintang Party from the permanent members of the UN Security
Council and transfer of the permanent seat to the representative of the
People’s Republic of China. This took place on 25 October 1971,
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in spite of clearly negative attitude of the United States, and became
possible owing to the support of the developing countries.
Also despite the opposition of the United States and its main ally
in the Middle East, Israel, a group of developing countries with the
active participation of the USSR adopted Resolution 3379 in 1975,
condemning Zionism as a form of racialism and racial discrimination,
which was canceled only in 1991, after the end of the Cold War.
Later, however, the failure of the United Nations mediation efforts
in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, the India-Pakistan conflict over
Kashmir border, as well as efforts to end the war in Vietnam coupled
with the strengthening of the role of the Third World countries in
international relations led to a significant increase in the value of
social and economic issues within the organization, which resulted in:
1) Expenses on peacekeeping operations reduction;
2) Increase in the United Nations economic and social programs
budget.
After the end of the Cold War and the USSR collapse there was a
staggering increase in the number of international conflicts and,
correspondingly, strengthening of the United Nations peacekeeping role.
Thus, in 1988–2000, the number of resolutions adopted by the Security
Council doubled, while the costs of peacekeeping operations grew more
than tenfold. Finally, during this period, the United Nations organized
more peacekeeping missions than in its entire preceding history.
In particular, the United Nations mediation efforts contributed to
the cessation of the civil war in El Salvador (1979–92) and the
settlement of the Namibian conflict in 1989–90. The first democratic
election in Cambodia after the expulsion of the Khmer Rouge was
held in 1993, with the United Nations observers’ participation, as well
as the first post-apartheid election in South Africa in 1994. In 1991,
the international coalition led by the United States under the flag of the
United Nations was formed to support the Government of Kuwait in
repelling the Iraqi aggression.
However, the United Nations efforts to resolve the conflicts in
Bosnia (1992–95), Somalia (1993), and Rwanda (1994) proved
unsuccessful.
Test Your Knowledge
1. Name the goals, membership terms, and the location of the
United Nations.
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2. Make a short overview of the United Nations history:
A) Describe the impact of the Cold War on the United Nations
functioning;
B) Characterize the impact of decolonization on the balance of
power within the United Nations and the evolution of the organization.
3. The United Nations is a universal IO, as:
A) All its member states have the right to vote;
B) It has to deal with lots of problems and issues;
C) It is a world government.
4. The number of the United Nations member states is:
A) 193;
B) 170;
C) 189.
5. Detect the language which is not the official working language
of the United Nations:
A) English;
B) Arabic;
C) Japanese;
D) Chinese.
Topics for Discussion
1. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the creation of the United Nations.
2. The United Nations and the League of Nations: common and
special.
3. The impact of decolonization on the United Nations activities
in 1950–70s.
4. The United Nations and the problem of the Middle Eastern
settlement.
5. The United Nations and the settlement of the international
conflicts in Africa.
6. The United Nations and the settlement of the conflict in the
Balkans.
Unit 5.2. United Nations Structure. Organizational structure of the
United Nations includes six main bodies:
1) General Assembly;
2) Security Council;
3) Secretariat;
4) International Court of Justice;
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