Kent J. Kille - The United Nations: 75 Years of Promoting Peace, Human Rights, and Development

The United Nations

The United Nations

75 Years of Promoting Peace,
Human Rights, and Development

Kent J. Kille and Alynna J. Lyon

Copyright 2020 by ABC-CLIO, LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kille, Kent J., author. | Lyon, Alynna, 1969- author.

Title: The United Nations : 75 years of promoting peace, human rights, and development / Kent J. Kille and Alynna J. Lyon.

Description: Santa Barbara, California : ABC-CLIO, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020011407 (print) | LCCN 2020011408 (ebook) | ISBN 9781440851568 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781440851575 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: United NationsHistory.

Classification: LCC JZ4984.5 .K547 2020 (print) | LCC JZ4984.5 (ebook) | DDC 341.2309dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020011407

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020011408

ISBN: 978-1-4408-5156-8 (print)

978-1-4408-5157-5 (ebook)

24 23 22 21 201 2 3 4 5

This book is also available as an eBook.

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Contents

The following student research assistants at The College of Wooster provided important research and editing assistance: Ghita Chiboub, Maureen Hanes, Matt Mayes, and Emmy Todd. In addition, Sabrina Harris, a student research assistant at The College of Wooster, receives particular recognition for the level of research collected and organized as well as writing assistance on the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). Several students from the University of New Hampshire also provided valuable research support and assistance, including Ryan Clasby, Cailee Griffin, Sophia Henkels, Elizabeth Lohmueller, and Madeleine Rousseau.

Alynna and Kent would also like to express their deep gratitude to their families for their support and patience and to their students of International Relations and the United Nations System who continually provide inspiration.

The United Nations (UN) is a universal international governmental organization tasked with maintaining peace and security, as well as promoting economic and social cooperation and protecting human rights across the globe. When the UN was founded in 1945, people around the world were optimistic that the organization would save the planet from the scourge of war. Since the creation of the UN, there have been no wars between great powers, and the organization has dynamically evolved in its handling of breaches of peace through the creation of peacekeeping, the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and the construction of new security norms, such as the responsibility to protect. Great strides have been made in addressing the social needs of the worlds population, including the eradication of smallpox. The UN provided a venue for the creation of many significant international human rights agreements, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (see twenty-first century is the fact that the organization is based on respecting member states sovereign control over their territory, while facing a long list of global challenges that do not conform to country borders. These problems without passports include transnational terrorism, environmental devastation, unprecedented refugee pressures, lethal pandemics, and the proliferation of weapons systems that can kill millions. The UN, despite its difficulties, provides a vital organizational setting to bring together almost every country in the world, as well as civil society and the private sector, to address international challenges from a global perspective.

The founding of the UN in 1945 was an extraordinary event as fifty countries came together and designed an organization to promote international collaboration, the peaceful resolution of conflict, economic and social cooperation, and human rights. U.S. President Harry S. Truman called the organization a solid structure upon which we can build a better world. The creation of the UN was no easy feat, but several key elements fortuitously came together. First, after two major destructive wars, the world was tired of bloodshed and wanted a different approach to resolving conflict. Second, the most powerful countries at the time were willing to cooperate and, most importantly, to compromise. This included the United States, which up until 1941 had generally been reluctant to become involved in global politics. In addition, previous experiments (particularly the League of Nations) provided a blueprint for how to (and how not to) design a universal international organization. Many scholars and diplomats across the globe view the establishment of the UN as a milestone in humanitys quest to build peace and escape from the vicious cycles of war.

PRECURSORS TO THE UNITED NATIONS

The UN is the result of a range of attempts to address aggressive behavior and regulate international affairs. The UNs earliest point of origin can be traced back to the Treaty of Westphalia signed in 1648. After the Thirty Years War (16181648), the princedoms around Europe agreed to establish the idea of sovereignty (supreme authority and freedom from interference in domestic affairs) to guide their relations. Although the Treaty of Westphalia did not create an organization, the central idea of sovereignty continues to define relations between countries today and is reinforced as a core UN principle. Yet, as countries became more connected, they needed a way to cooperate and began developing organizations to make it easier to meet, communicate, and collaborate.

Many international organizations, including the UN, were created after war. This was true for an early experiment in Europe fashioned by the Congress of Vienna (18141815) to reorganize international politics after the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815. An agreement between the most powerful Europeans at the time (Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia) established the Concert of Europe, which became an early model for collaboration between countries. The Concert represents one of the first multilateral alliances where several countries negotiated at the same time, rather than the traditional bilateral (relations between two countries) approach. In this organizational experiment, countries held sovereign equality and attended occasional meetings. The Concert centered on creating regional stability, which was effective in blocking two attempts to unseat the constitutional governments of Italy (1820) and Spain (1822). The Concert is widely considered to be one of the first credible efforts to coordinate global policy and promote peace. However, the fragmented approach taken, along with the lack of permanent headquarters and full-time staff, limited its effectiveness. In addition, the primary method of creating stability was to balance powerful countries against each other.