In joining the North Atlantic Treaty the United States made a momentous decision in its foreign policy. This article undertakes to analyze the rôle of the United States Senate in this historic step and to summarize the more important issues encountered.

Points 2 and 3 of the Vandenberg Resolution, considered and agreed to on June 11, 1948, stated that it was the sense of the Senate that the United States Government, by constitutional process, should particularly pursue the following objectives within the United Nations Charter:

1. (2) Progressive development of regional and other collective arrangements for individual and collective self-defense in accordance with the purposes, principles, and provisions of the Charter.

2. (3) Association of the United States, by constitutional process, with such regional and other collective arrangements as are based on continuous and effective self-help and mutual aid, and as affect its national security.

Intergovernmental organizations are frequently confronted with questions concerning the recognition of states and governments. This essay deals with the principles and practices concerning recognition by major intergovernmental organizations in the light of the related rules and practices of the League of Nations, the Inter-American System and the United Nations.

In continuation of the note on “Some Aspects of the Work of the Interim Committee of the General Assembly,” the present note will deal with the five resolutions adopted by the General Assembly during the second part of its third session, held between April 5 and May 19, 1949, on the problem of voting in the Security Council and on the study of methods for the promotion of international coöperation in the political field. These resolutions, which were adopted upon the recommendation of the Interim Committee, concern (1) the problem of voting in the Security Council; (2) restoration to the General Act of September 26, 1928, of its original efficacy; (3) appointment of a rapporteur or conciliator for a situation or dispute brought to the attention of the Security Council; (4) amendments to the rules of procedure of the General Assembly; and (5) creation of a panel for inquiry and conciliation.

The General Assembly, at its 160th Plenary Meeting on November 18, 1948, adopted resolution 224 (III) on the effects of Administrative Unions on Trust Territories which, inter alia, called upon the Trusteeship Council to investigate this question in all its aspects and to report to the next (fourth) session of the General Assembly on the results of its investigations and actions taken, and also, whenever appropriate, to request an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice as to whether such Unions were within the scope of, and compatible with, the provisions of the Charter and the Trusteeship Agreements. Pursuant to this resolution, the Trusteeship Council created a Committee on Administrative Unions to undertake preparatory work to facilitate the investigations. This Committee, in addition to preparing documents, made an interim report and a final report.

On December 9, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted at its Paris session a resolution approving the annexed Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and proposing it for signature and ratification.

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights at its six weeks’ session at Lake Success, which ended on June 20, 1949, revised the draft International Covenant on Human Rights and considered briefly questions of principle relating to the establishment of international machinery for the implementation of the Covenant. The draft covenant and proposals for its implementation have been transmitted to the fifty-nine Member Governments of the United Nations for their comments, the Commission having fixed January 1, 1950, as the final date on which all proposals concerning these drafts should be received by the Secretariat. The Commission will reconvene on March 27, 1950, to revise the draft covenant and the proposed texts on implementation in the light of comments received from governments. The draft covenant and the implementation machinery completed by the Commission at its 1950 session is expected to be forwarded to the Economic and Social Council and then to the General Assembly for its consideration in the fall of 1950.