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The Management of Power in the Changing United Nations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Inis L. Claude Jr
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Extract

The central problem of our time is to achieve the effective management of the power relations of states. The world is constituted as a system of independent but interdependent states—independent in authority but interdependent in destiny. States are units of power. While power is a complex conception, for present purposes it may be construed in the narrow sense of force. Physical ability to kill, to damage, or to coerce, is the particular aspect of power which serves as the focus of this article. States are characterized by the possession, in varying degrees, of this capacity to damage or destroy each other. This power may be used in competitive struggle, producing destruction on a massive scale. It may be used unilaterally, producing enslavement and degradation of its victims. In short, both survival and freedom, both sheer existence and the higher values that enrich existence, are implicated in the problem of power. The national interest of every state, and the common interest of all men, in the preservation and development of civilization are threatened by the paroxysms of violence which states are capable of unleashing. Hence, the primacy of the task of controlling the use of force by states, of managing the power relations of states, cannot seriously be questioned.

Type
Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , Spring 1961 , pp. 219 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1961

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References

1 Hamilton, Thomas J., “The Changing United Nations: Morale Lowered by Deadlocks,” New York Times, 12 30, 1960Google Scholar.

2 See Eisenhower's letter to Bulganin, January 12, 1958, reproduced in Zinner, Paul E., ed., Documents on American Foreign Relations, 1958 (New York: Harper, 1959), p. 89Google Scholar; see also, SirMunro, Leslie, “The Case for a Standing U.N. Army,” New York Times Magazine, 07 27, 1958, p. 27Google Scholar.

3 A Decade of American Foreign Policy, Basic Documents, 1941–49, Senate Document No. 123, 81st Congress, 1st Session (Washington, 1950), p. 12Google Scholar.

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5 See Russell, Ruth B. and Muther, Jeannette E., A History of the United Nations Charter (Washington: Brookings, 1958), p. 3, 4, 206, 209, 227–228, 395. 557Google Scholar.

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7 Ibid., p. 668.

8 Ibid., p. 678.

9 For an early and perceptive statement of this interpretation, see Koo, Wellington Jr, Voting Procedures in International Political Organizations (New York: Columbia, 1947), p. 117, 124, 134Google Scholar.

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11 Ibid., XII, p. 307–308.

12 Ibid., p. 296.

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14 See Riggs, Robert E., “Overselling the UN Charter—Fact and Myth,” International Organization, Spring 1960 (Vol. 14, No. 2), p. 277–290CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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17 This summary of the scheme is based upon Articles 2, 24–25, and 39–51 of the Charter.

18 See Articles 53 and 107 of the Charter.

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21 See my analysis of this point in “The United Nations and the Use of Force,” International Conciliation, March 1961. Cf. Reitzel, William, Kaplan, Morton A., and Coblenz, Constance G., United States Foreign Policy, 1945–1955 (Washington: Brookings Institution, 1956), p. 239–240Google Scholar.

22 General Assembly Resolution 377 (V), November 3, 1950.

23 See General Assembly Official Records, Fifth session, 295th Plenary Meeting, 10 24, 1950, p. 246Google Scholar, and 299th Plenary Meeting, November 1, 1950, p. 291–292.

24 New York Times, November 6, 1956, p. 10.

25 Cf. Bloomfield, Lincoln P., The United Nations and U. S. Foreign Policy (Boston: Little, Brown, 1960), p. 44–45. 67Google Scholar.