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National Attitudes and International Order: The National Studies on International Organization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Stanley Hoffmann
Stanley Hoffmann
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Government at Harvard University.
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Abstract

In 1952 the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace initiated a series of national studies on international organization which were to be carried out by private groups and individuals in more than twenty countries. They were to provide an appraisal of the national experience of these countries in international organizations, especially the United Nations, ten years after the San Francisco conference. Fourteen volumes in the series have now been published. Three more will be published soon, including the two final volumes which summarize and discuss the conclusions of the individual studies. These two works have been written, respectively, by Maurice Bourquin, Professor of International Public Law at the University of Geneva, and by Robert MacIver, Lieber Professor Emeritus of Political Philosophy and Sociology at Columbia University. Other national studies have been completed and were available to Professors Bourquin and MacIver, but they have not been published yet; this reviewer has not seen them and will therefore limit his own remarks to the reports which have been or are soon to be published. I will examine first the questions which the national studies were supposed to answer and the way in which the various authors have tried to answer them; then I will present some general comments about the national attitudes toward international organization, as they emerge from the series; finally I will discuss the role of the UN in present world politics, as it can be interpreted on the basis of the national reports.

Type
Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , Spring 1959 , pp. 189 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation and Cambridge University Press 1959

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References

1 Sorensen, Max and Haagerup, Niels J., Denmark and the United Nations, New York, Manhattan Publishing Company (place of publication and publisher apply to all fourteen volumes), 1956, 154 p.Google ScholarIsrael and the United Nations, Report of a study group set up by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1956, 322 p.Google ScholarBelin, Jacqueline, La Suisse et les Nations Unies, under the direction of Paul Guggenheim, 1956, 139 p.Google ScholarSweden and the United Nations, Report by a special study group of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, 1956, 315 p.Google ScholarSoward, Frederic H. and McInnis, Edgar, Canada and the United Nations, with the assistance of Walter O'Hearn, 1956, 285 p.Google ScholarIndia and the United Nations, Report of a study group set up by the Indian World Affairs Council, 1957, 229 p.Google ScholarEgypt and the United Nations, Report of a study group set up by the Egyptian Society of International Law, 1957, 197 p.Google ScholarGoodwin, Geoffrey L., Britain and the United Nations, 1957, 478 p.Google ScholarCalogéropoulos-Stratis, S., La Grèce et les Nations Unies, en collaboration avec P. A. Argyropoulo, S. Castanos, and D. Sidjanski, 1957, 190. p.Google ScholarUruguay and the United Nations, prepared under the auspices of the Uruguayan Institute of Inter-national Law, 1958, 129 p.Google ScholarLa Belgique et les Nations Unies, étude preparée par une commission de l'institut Royal des Relations Internationales, 1958, 372 p.Google ScholarCastaneda, Jorge, Mexico and the United Nations, 1958, 244 p.Google ScholarJapan and the United Nations, Report of a study group set up by the Japanese Association of International Law, 1958, 246 p.Google ScholarScott, William A. and Withey, Stephen B., The United States and the United Nations—The Public View, 1945–1955, 1958, 314 p.Google Scholar

2 Harper, Norman and Sissons, David, Australia and the United Nations.Google ScholarBourquin, Maurice, L'Etat souverain et l'organisation internationale.Google ScholarMaclver, Robert, The Nations and the United Nations.Google Scholar

3 I will not discuss the reports' proposals for Charter revision: on the whole the authors were exceedingly skeptical about the possibility of, and need for, amending a Charter the interpretation of which has been as flexible as its formal amending process is rigid.

4 Morgenthau, Hans J., “The Yardstick of the Nationalr Interest,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, November 1954 (Vol. 302). P. 77 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Israel and the United Nations, p. 221–222.Google Scholar

6 India's objection to the international ownership of atomic raw materials once proposed by the United States is another example. India's refusal to accept arbitration on Kashmir and Israel's opposition to attempts at “de-politicizing” and legalizing problems such as the definition of aggression are also cases in point.

7 The Australian report contains a fine analysis of Dr. Evatt's own ambiguous position at San Francisco: “with a clearer view than most of the need for an organic international structure, he nevertheless imposed few new limitations on national sovereignty and carefully safeguarded the principle of domestic jurisdiction”.

8 See Castañeda's, Señor previous “Pan-Americanism and Regionalism: A Mexican View,” International Organization, August 1956 (Vol. 10, No. 3), p. 373–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Only on disloyalty charges against American members of the UN Secretariat does a large amount of information appear to have been spread, according to the report. For more details concerning the public's ignorance, see in particular, The United States and the United Nations—the Public View 1954–1955, Chapters 3 and 9.

10 See his article, “The Challenge of Regionalism,” International Organization, Autumn 1958 (Vol. 12, No. 4), P. 440–458. at p. 448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Deutsch, Karl, Nationalism and Social Communication, Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1953.Google Scholar