Unit One
International
Cooperation:
the dream that won't go away
Is there a dimension to human life where the common hopes of
humankind—putting an end to war, controlling the spread of illness, putting an end to poverty – transcend national interests and enable the
countries of the world to work together to achieve their common dreams? The
United Nations and its forerunner,
the League of Nations came to exist because
of the belief that there is such a dimension to life. Although the dream of
international cooperation has not always met with success, it has never gone
away. This dream has existed for centuries, but it was in the twentieth
century that the nations of the world tried to make it a reality. Individuals
from around the world worked in different ways to promote the vision of an
international forum where nations could work together to solve problems and
conflicts that threaten world stability - a vision that came
from, as British writer and statesman, Leonard Woolf
put it, "the international heart".
Woolf wrote a book called International Government in
which he advocated
the idea of a world body that would help keep peace. Leonard Woolf and his wife, author Virginia Woolf
began the Hogarth Press—in part so they could
publish and promote the idea of a League of Nations.
Even earlier, in the nineteenth century, writer H.G. Wells wrote "A
Declaration of the Rights of Man", later used as a basis for the United
Nations Charter, along with "The Universal Declaration of the Rights of
Man" produced during the French Revolution. The name "United
Nations" came from a poem by British poet, Lord Byron, 'Here, where the
sword united nations drew,/Our countrymen were
warring on that day!' Quoting Byron, Winston Churchill suggested the name,
"United Nations", replacing President Roosevelt's choice of
"Associated Nations".
A
French statesman, Leon Auguste Bourgeois, also
called the "spiritual" father of the League of
Nations, worked tirelessly
to bring such a forum into being. He received the 1920 Nobel Peace Prize for
his efforts. Feminist proponents of
the League of Nations from around the world
lobbied for equal rights in the League's Charter.
Although
the belief in a cooperative body of nations had been very much alive on the
intellectual scene, it was the destruction caused by the First World War that
moved the nations of the world to act on this belief - to find, once again,
the "international heart". Jan Smuts, Prime Minister of South
Africa worked closely with Woodrow Wilson, who was President of the United States
from 1912 to 1921. Wilson responded to the world’s
war-weariness by drawing up his
14 points – one of which included a provision for a League
of Nations. Ironically,
though a U.S. president
formally proposed the idea of an international world forum, the U.S. never became a member of the League of
Nations as the U.S. Congress failed to ratify the League of
Nations treaty. For his efforts to create a body to bring about
world peace, Wilson
was awarded the Nobel peace Prize in 1919. While the League of Nations
ultimately disbanded, in part because it lacked US support and because it
failed to prevent the Second World War, Wilson's
successor, President Roosevelt totally committed himself to working toward
the creation of a world body to preserve world peace. Roosevelt, who remained
committed to his leadership role even after being stricken by polio, died on
April 12, 1945 -- less than two weeks before the April 25 meeting in San Francisco, where
delegates from 50 countries created the United Nations Charter.
For
even with the advent and aftermath of the Second World War, the desire for
international unity resurfaced and became even stronger—perhaps stronger than
ever. The United Nations was formed on 24 October 1945 with 51 member
nations. The nations of the world tried to learn from the failure of the League of Nations by making adjustments in the rules
for the new Organization. The United Nations Charter gave the new world body
stronger executive powers assumed by the Security Council. It also required
member states to contribute armed forces to serve as peacekeepers to repel an
aggressor.
The
dream that nations can work cooperatively to achieve goals--while also
maintaining individual sovereignty - will not go away. While every nation,
every person, every living thing on the earth seeks to maintain its survival,
the only way to ensure that survival is by learning to coexist with others,
who are vastly different.
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