Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 May 2009
The differences which have been building up within the United Nations in recent years over the financing of peacekeeping have reached a point where strenuous measures are needed to rescue the Organization from its divisions and paralysis.
1 On the financial problem of the UN generally, see Stoessinger, John G. and others, Financing the United Nations System (Washington, D.C: Brookings Institution, 1964)Google Scholar; and Padelford, Norman J., ‘Financial Crisis and the Future of the United Nations,’ World Politics, 07 1963 (Vol. 15, No. 4), PP. 531–568CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Data on the financial situation at the end of 1964 was taken from a personal letter of the Deputy Controller of the UN to the author.
2 See Collection of Contributions as at 30 November 1964: Report of the Secretary-General (UN Document A/5822), Table II.
3 The rebate arrangements will be found in General Assembly Resolutions 1732 (XVI) and 1733 (XVI), December 20, 1961; and Resolutions 1835 (XVIII), October 18, 1963, and 1983 (XVIII), December 17, 1963. The resolution authorizing the bonds is General Assembly Resolution 1739 (XVI), December 20, 1961; bonds amounting to $168.7 million of the $200 million authorized were sold. Payments on the interest and principal were made charges on the regular budget. The Soviet Union and France have refused to pay their apportionments for these.
4 Collection of Contributions as at 17 January 1965: Report of the Secretary-General (UN Document A/5847).
5 The positions of the various parties on the main issues are conveniently summarized in Financing of United Nations Peace-Keeping Operations: Report of the Wording Group on the Examination of the Administrative and Budgetary Procedures of the United Nations (UN Document A/5407, March 29, 1963).
6 The Introduction to the Annual Report of the Secretary-General on the Work, of the Organization, 16 June 1960–15 June 1961 in which Mr. Hammarskjöld set out two differing views of the United Nations added fuel to these apprehensions. For the text of the Introduction, see General Assembly Official Records (16th session), Supplement No. 1A; or United Nations Review, 09 1961 (Vol. 8, No. 9), pp. 12–17, 34–35Google Scholar.
7 The statement of Nikolai Fedorenko at the final meeting of the Assembly's fourth special session (General Assembly Official Records [4th special session], pp. 19–21)Google Scholar contains a strong assertion of the Soviet case. A later affirmation of the Soviet position will be found in the statement of Soviet delegate Victor Ulanchev in September 1964 before the Working Group on the Examination of the Administrative and Budgetary Procedures of the UN (Working Group of Twenty-One) as reported in UN Monthly Chronicle, 10 1964 (Vol. 1, No. 5), pp. 48–50Google Scholar, together with the United States reply.
8 See the statements of the Australian, Brazilian, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, and Netherlands representatives before the Working Group of Twenty-One (ibid., pp. 50–56).
9 Chapter V, Section B (5). The United Nations Conference on International Organization at San Francisco did amend the Proposals to add what ultimately became Article 19 of the Charter.
10 Certain Expenses of the United Nations (Article 17, paragraph 2, of the Charter), Advisory Opinion of 20 July 1562: I.C.J. Reports 7962, pp. 151–308. For a discussion of the opinion, see Gross, Leo, ‘Expenses of the United Nations for Peace-Keeping Operations: The Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice,’ International Organization, Winter 1963 (Vol. 17, No. 1), pp. 1–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
11 General Assembly Resolution 1854 (XVII), December 19, 1962, which was approved by a vote of 76 in favor, 17 opposed, with 8 abstentions.
12 General Assembly Resolution 1874 (S-IV), June 27, 1963, which was adopted by a vote of 92 in favor, 11 opposed, with 3 abstentions.
13 Documents of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, San Francisco, 1945 (New York: United Nations Information Organization, 1945), Vol. 13, pp. 709–710Google Scholar.
14 It may be noted that the Soviet Union voted in the General Assembly in 1956 in favor of establishing UNEF but has refused to pay any assessments for this.
15 General Assembly Official Records … Fifth Committee (4th special session), pp. 79–81Google Scholar.
16 See Article 19 of the Charter of the United Nations: A Memorandum of Law (prepared by the Office of the Legal Adviser) (Washington, D.C: United States Department of State, 1964)Google Scholar.
17 The New York Times, May 22, 1963.
18 Positions summarized in the Annual Report of the Secretary-General on the Work, of the Organization, 16 June 1962–15 June 1963 (General Assembly Official Records [Supplement No. 1]), p. 141Google Scholar.
19 Sec Krock, Arthur in The New York Times, 02 21, 1965Google Scholar.
20 UN Document A/PV.1329, February 16, 1965.
21 UN Document A/PV.1330, February 18, 1965, pp. 28–33.
22 Ibid., pp. 33–34. The vote was 97 in favor, 2 opposed, with 13 abstentions, including France.
23 General Assembly Resolution 2006 (XIX), February 18, 1965.
24 General Assembly Resolution 2004 (XIX), February 18, 1965.
25 A digest of these proposals appears in UN Monthly Chronicle, Vol. 1, No. 5, pp. 47–48. A report on an earlier United States–United Kingdom compromise proposal is given in a dispatch of Hamilton, Thomas J., ‘U.N.'s Fiscal Plight,’ The New York Times, 03 22, 1964Google Scholar.
26 The New York Times, February 22, 1965.
27 See statement of the Argentine representative speaking at the Working Group of Twenty-One on behalf of a group of Afro-Asian and Latin American states in UN Monthly Chronicle, Vol. 1, No. 5, pp. 50–51Google Scholar. The Swedish representatives have taken a similar stand.
28 Sec Stoessinger, Chapter 11.
29 Padelford, Norman J., Some European Attitudes Toward United Nations Financing (Cambridge, Mass: Center for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 11 1964)Google Scholar.
30 UN Monthly Chronicle, Vol. 1, No. 5, p. 49. See also, Memorandum of the Government of the USSR Regarding Certain Measures to Strengthen the Effectiveness of the United Nations in the Safeguarding of International Peace and Security (UN Document A/5721, July 10, 1964).
31 I am indebted to a group of graduate students including Dana G. Mead, Gordon S. Smith, Paul L. Gurnee, Randolph T. Major, Robert L. Fischer, Aaron Seidman, and Mrs. Loretta M. Skat for suggestions relating to the problem of finding consensus.
32 See Stoessinger, Chapters 7 and 12.
33 UN Document S/5575, March 4, 1964. The debate is summarized in the United Nations Review, 04 1964 (Vol. 11, No. 4), pp. 5–15, 35–36Google Scholar.
34 UN Document S/5764, June 16, 1964, p. 40.
35 Report by the Secretary-General on the United Nations Operation in Cyprus (UN Document S/5950), p. 67.
36 General Assembly Resolution 1879 (S-IV), June 27, 1963.
37 Ibid.
38 See Stoessinger, pp. 158–162.
39 Sec Bloomfield, Lincoln P. and others, International Military Forces: The Question of Peacekeeping in an Armed and Disarming World (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1964), especially Chapter 7Google Scholar.