ENDS OF THE U. N.
Bailey, Sydney D.
Ends of the U. N. The United Nations: constitutional developments, growth, and possibilities, by Benjamin V. Cohen. Harvard University Press. 106 pp. $2.75. Reviewed by Sydney D. Bailey rXiHERE...
...Consultation as well as negotiation among the great powers could usefully be undertaken within the United Nations framework...
...The United Nations, like any delicate instrument, can be misused— and not only by the malevolent...
...The Assembly may make recommendations, but these will be effective only to the extent that they express the reasoned will and elicit the support of an alert worldwide conscience...
...So much for what Cohen has to say...
...It is perfectly easy to mobilize in the United Nations' Assembly a massive vote condemning apartheid but this may not necessarily affect the situation in South Africa in the way intended by the majority...
...If the parties to an international dispute fail to find a solution by peaceful means of their own choosing, they have an obligation to resort to the United Nations...
...The fact that the "presence" of the United Nations in areas of tension has had a tranquiliz-ing effect has depended in large measure on the late Secretary-General Hammarskjold's great skill and discretion, but the policy-making organs should not impose excessive burdens on the Secretary-General...
...Indeed, I know of no other book which, in such brief compass, gives a clearer and more perceptive interpretation of the role and potentiality of the United Nations in the political field...
...Reviewed by Sydney D. Bailey rXiHERE are almost one hundred items on the agenda of the current session of the United Nations General Assembly, but the most important question of all is not there...
...But debate has tended more and more to be directed towards third parties...
...These include the obligation to settle international disputes by peaceful means, and the obligation not to threaten or use force except in self-defense against armed attack or for collective measures authorized by the United Nations...
...If the Council cannot work effectively because of the veto, other means for upholding the purposes and principles of the United Nations should be devised, including the use of the General Assembly...
...The United Nations was set up to harmonize the actions of nations in the attainment of certain common ends...
...In The United Nations, Benjamin Cohen happily combines an emphasis on what is immediately practicable with an assertion of what is ultimately desirable...
...This was true statesmanship...
...It was about this stage in the life of the League of Nations that the process of decline began...
...Debate was traditionally an attempt to convince an opponent with reasoned argument...
...in that sense, debate is a necessary part of negotiation...
...The United Nations is based on the assumption that the natural condition of international society is disharmony, but that appropriate institutions and methods can cause a re-assessment of national interests and thus lead to a sufficient degree of harmonious action as to avoid catastrophe...
...The Soviet Union and the West need to discover the essential rules and conditions of peaceful coexistence...
...One of the great contributions of Dag Hammarskjold was his willingness to take a step at a time...
...The one point where I might disagree with him is, I suspect, largely a matter of emphasis...
...But numerical voting victories can be illusory...
...Will the United Nations survive...
...The Security Council has primary but not exclusive responsibility for keeping world peace...
...but each step made the ultimate goal seem more attainable...
...An assessment of the kind I have in mind does not mean that aspirations arc consigned to the garbage heap...
...it is for wise and discriminating use based on a realistic assessment of the capacity of the organization to achieve its purposes in the actual circumstances of the moment...
...Voting in the United Nations, when there is no clear consensus, should be downgraded...
...The United Nations is now in its seventeenth year...
...Instead, attention should always be devoted to mediation, conciliation, and the search lor accommodations leaving to the "solvent of time and unforeseeable events the solution of seemingly irreconcilable conflicts...
...It is difficult to compress Cohen's wisdom into a short space, but what he is saying is something like this: The United Nations Charter is a treaty, and member states are obligated to act in accordance with its provisions and principles...
...Debate in the United Nations may help to clarify issues and thus facilitate an ultimate solution...
...This is all the more necessary now than when the United Nations was founded because the technological revolution has made the threat of force extremely hazardous, reinforcing the ethical arguments against indiscriminate violence...
...Public debate in the United Nations does not seem to me always to clarify issues or to facilitate ultimate solutions...
...A renewed effort is needed to halt the arms race, beginning with a controlled ban on nuclear tests...
...The reason for this is, of course, that debate is a prelude to voting, and it is natural to want to win...
...Fortunately, there is nothing inevitable about history...
...A United Nations diplomat once said that the vote that really matters in connection with apartheid is South Africa's...
...The vital need, in a period of crisis, is not for general declarations of support...
Vol. 26 • February 1962 • No. 2
