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France and the United Nations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 May 2009
Extract
When French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand proposed in 1929 to establish “a sort of federal bond” between the European members of the League of Nations, these states numbered 27 out of a total membership of 60. Today the United Nations has a membership of 114 states of which 23 are European. Of these 23 states, seven are popular democracies. (The Soviet Union, a special case, is not included in this calculation.) There remain sixteen countries extending in the form of a crescent from Finland to Ireland to France and from Portugal to Turkey which are part of the “free” or “Western world.” The conclusion is obvious. The League of Nations was dominated by Europeans who furthermore controlled a large part of the overseas world in the form of colonies, protectorates, and mandates. The United Nations, where the major influence, linked to power, is exerted by the United States and the Soviet Union, is dominated by non-Europeans. This non-European domination—political, psychological, and moral—is the fundamental phenomenon, and it is the subject of this study.
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- III. The United Nations and Its Members
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The IO Foundation 1965
References
1 For the original text in French, see Mayer, René, Le pacte de l'Atlantique, paix ou guerre? (Paris: Editions du Grand Siècle, 1949), pp. xi–xvGoogle Scholar.
2 For the text of the entire discourse in French, see ibid., pp. 97–131.
3 L'Année Politique (Paris: Editions du Grand Sièle, 1947), p. 107Google Scholar.
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5 UN Document A/C.I/736.
6 General Assembly Resolution 611 (VII), December 17, 1952.
7 UN Document A/C.1/L.60.
8 UN Document A/C.1/L.61.
9 UN Document S/3671.
10 Adopted as UN Document S/3675.
11 UN Document S/3710.
12 UN Document S/3713/Rev.I.
13 UN Document S/3719.
14 General Assembly Resolution 997 (ES-I), November 2, 1956.
15 General Assembly Resolution 998 (ES-I), November 4, 1956.
16 UN Document S/3736.
17 General Assembly Resolution 1123 (XI), January 19, 1957.
18 UN Document A/C.1/L.194.
19 General Assembly Resolution 1012 (XI), February 15, 1957.
20 UN Document A/C.1/L.196.
21 UN Document A/4075.
22 UN Document A/L.276.
23 UN Document A/C.1/L.265 and Add.1–3.
24 General Assembly Resolution 1573 (XV), December 19, 1960.
25 UN Document A/L.333.
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29 UN Document A/C.I/L.238/Rev.I.
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33 General Assembly Resolution 377 (V), November 3, 1950.
34 Le Monde, February 21–22, 1965, p. 2.
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