Learning Objectives
- Make connections and comparisons between primary sources
Figure 1. The United Nations headquarters in New York City. While the first meetings of the UN Security Council and General Assembly took place in London in 1946, this permanent home would later be constructed on land that is considered international territory. This status underscores the UN’s non-partisan, universalist orientation, as its headquarters are not legally a part of any one country.[footnote]"un.org". accessed 2/24/2022.https://www.un.org/en/about-us/history-of-the-un/1941-1950[/footnote]
Postwar Stability and the United Nations
One of the most consequential developments to come out of World War II was the creation of the United Nations, an institution that sought to provide a forum for open discussion between political actors. The UN was created to facilitate international diplomacy. In this historical hack, we will learn more about the purpose of the UN and examine some of the goals laid out in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights preamble. We will also compare these UN goals to a seemingly dissimilar document, one that outlines the Nazi Party Platform. In doing this, we’ll gain experience in making comparisons between primary documents.
Founding of the United Nations
Founded as a successor to the largely ineffective League of Nations, an international organization founded in 1920 with the aim of preventing another global conflict like World War I, the United Nations was chartered in 1945 when representatives from 51 states met in San Francisco to negotiate a mutually acceptable framework for addressing political tensions through multilateral diplomacy or an open forum where all concerned nations have a voice, instead of armed confrontation. While the United States did not join the earlier League of Nations, an early but ultimately unsuccessful model for multilateral diplomacy, membership in the new organization was overwhelmingly supported by the United States Senate.
World War II dramatically upended the balance of global power, with Germany and Japan badly diminished and only the United States and the Soviet Union emerging as sufficiently powerful to exert political control on the international stage. The deployment of the atomic bomb and the atrocities of the Holocaust ushered in a new set of uncomfortable questions and raised the stakes of multilateral diplomacy. The need for an international forum where grievances could be aired and compromises affirmed had perhaps never been greater.
United Nations Goals: Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear
In keeping with some of the goals of the earlier Atlantic Charter, the United Nations charter would prioritize two of President Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms: freedom from want and freedom from fear. An emphasis on international cooperation in economic matters would help prevent future conflict based on material scarcity, and an open venue for diplomatic exchange and negotiation would ideally diminish mutual distrust and weariness between the world’s nations, whether made more dominant by the war or weakened by it.[1] Let’s look at some key points in the UN Charter.
Charter of the United Nations
The UN Charter, signed on June 26, 1945, sets forth the aims and goals of the newly created United Nations. Read through some of the selected articles below and look for the reasoning behind its creation.
WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, AND FOR THESE ENDS to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples, HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.
CHAPTER I
PURPOSES AND PRINCIPLES
Article 1
The Purposes of the United Nations are:
1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
3. To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
4. To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.
…
Article 13
1. The General Assembly shall initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of:
a. promoting international co-operation in the political field and encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codification;
b. promoting international co-operation in the economic, social, cultural, educational, and health fields, an assisting in the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.
…
Article 23
1. The Security Council shall consist of fifteen Members of the United Nations. The Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America shall be permanent members of the Security Council. The General Assembly shall elect ten other Members of the United Nations to be non-permanent members of the Security Council, due regard being specially paid, in the first in- stance to the contribution of Members of the United Nations to the maintenance of inter- national peace and security and to the other purposes of the Organization, and also to equitable geographical distribution.
…
Article 33
1. The parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, shall, first of a, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.
…
Article 55
With a view to the creation of conditions of stability and well-being which are necessary for peaceful and friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, the United Nations shall promote:
a. higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of economic and social progress and development;
b. solutions of international economic, social, health, and related problems; and international cultural and educational co- operation; and
c. universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.
…
Article 62
1. The Economic and Social Council may make or initiate studies and reports with respect to international economic, social, cultural, educational, health, and related matters and may make recommendations with respect to any such matters to the General Assembly, to the Members of the United Nations, and to the specialized agencies concerned.
2. It may make recommendations for the purpose of promoting respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.
3. It may prepare draft conventions for submission to the General Assembly, with respect to matters falling within its competence.
4. It may call, in accordance with the rules prescribed by the United Nations, international conferences on matters falling within its competence.
Try It
Activity #1
The rise in nationalism in the twenty-first century and increasing political tensions during and after the global Covid-19 Pandemic, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have many wondering what the United Nations can do to get involved.
Using the UN Charter as your guide, think about other goals you think an international peacekeeping organization should have in our modern era. Write down two additional things you think should be added to the charter, and explain why those would benefit international peacekeeping efforts. You can use the space below to jot down your ideas.
Try It
Addressing the Emergence of Nazi Germany
Offering a new template for thinking about the responsibilities of nationhood, the United Nations is as much a philosophy as a brick-and-mortar institution. Intended to prevent another world war, the UN proposed multilateral diplomacy–with all willing nations having a voice–as an antidote to the tensions and expansionist aggression that had enabled the rise of Nazi Germany, among other “barbarous” developments.
Coming out of the aftermath of WWII, a question the UN needed to address was how Nazi Germany emerged as an explicitly racist, genocidal state that was radically at odds with democratic and pluralistic (those which respect a range of diverse viewpoints and cultural traditions) ideals. Prior to the Nazi period, Germany was a deeply cultured, technologically advanced nation, not entirely unlike France or England. We can ask the following questions to try to understand how Nazism emerged in Germany.
- How and why did it change in the aftermath of World War I and under the pressures of the international Great Depression of the 1930s?
- What grievances and alleged infringements lent credibility to this new state’s leaders?
- At what point did democratic standards fail or become fatally weakened?
We won’t get into the details of this at the moment, but it’s important to understand that the Nazi party began with a party platform, which was to serve as the blueprint for the laws and policies of their new state. This platform provides insights into the Nazi party. In this hack, we’ll take a look at the Nazi platform and compare that with the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Let’s dive in on the next page.
Try It
GlossarY
multilateral diplomacy: an open forum where all concerned nations have a say
pluralistic: a perspective that respects and accommodates a range of diverse viewpoints and cultural traditions
- Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty: An American History, 3rd Ed. (New York: Norton & Co., 2011), 943-44. ↵