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The Small States of Western Europe in the United Nations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Annette Baker Fox
Annette Baker Fox
Affiliation:
Research Associate, Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University. The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Anna P. Schreiber, graduate student in the Department of Public Law and Government
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Extract

Only six of the small states of Western or Western oriented Europe participated in the United Nations Conference on International Organization at San Francisco. They were Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, Norway, Luxembourg, and, after a struggle between the Soviet Union and its wartime allies, Denmark. Their participation followed, for the most part, the model of the “honorable, independent, disinterested small state”: sober, responsible, speaking mainly when spoken to, but assiduously seeking out ways to make their voices heard in the alleviation of international conflict. True, they were there as part of the winning coalition in World War II and shared the hopes and expectations of the larger Western powers concerning the role of the United Nations. But they joined similar countries outside Europe, particularly Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, in helping to shape a UN Charter which in certain ways differed from the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals. The role of the General Assembly was, for example, enlarged, thus modifying the special position of the Great Powers, and the scope of the United Nations in economic and social fields was expanded. The influence of the small states in Europe stemmed from the desire of the major Western allies, particularly the United States, to ensure the success of the enterprise by concessions to those whose participation would be necessary to make it a worthwhile undertaking.

Type
III. The United Nations and Its Members
Information
International Organization , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , Summer 1965 , pp. 774 - 786
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1965

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References

1 Goodrich, Leland M., The United Nations (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1959), pp. 26–27Google Scholar; and Glazebrook, George de T., “The Middle Powers in the United Nations System,” International Organization, 06 1947 (Vol. 1, No. 2), pp. 307–315, especially p. 310CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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5 Belgium, in particular, but also Norway favored a break in diplomatic relations; Denmark and Sweden, however, considered this to be intervention in Spain's domestic affairs and in any case of no avail. In the Security Council the Netherlands expressed doubt concerning the constitutionality of actions within the “domestic jurisdiction” of Spain. All these states later joined those agreeable to weakening the adamant opposition to Spain.

6 See Sweden and the Untied Nations (Report by a Special Study Group of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs Prepared for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) (New York: Manhattan Publishing Company, 1956), especially pp. 68–109, 196–197Google Scholar; Ahman, Brita Skottsberg, “Scandinavian Foreign Policy, Past and Present,” in Friis, Henning (ed.), Scandinavia—Between East and West (Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press, 1950), pp. 256–305, especially p. 292Google Scholar; and Tingsten, Herbert, “Issues in Swedish Foreign Policy,” Foreign Affairs, 04 1959 (Vol. 37, No. 3), p. 477CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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We also knew … we would derive international recognition [of our neutrality] from membership. Such recognition implied a measure of security which we could not have found elsewhere. (Foreign Affairs, 04 1959 [Vol. 37, No. 2], p. 274Google Scholar.) See also the remarks of Finland's President Urho Kekkonen along the same lines as noted by Jakobson, Max, “Finland in the United Nations,” in Introduction to Finland, 1963 (Helsinki: Finland Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1963), pp. 67–73Google Scholar.

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18 Their views in the Bizerte case between Tunisia and France show this tendency especially clearly.

19 These comments apply to membership in the United Nations. For Austria and Finland, otherwise quite isolated prior to their admission to the Organization, membership in the specialized agencies meant prized international contacts. In later years, after its selection as the seat of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna aspired to be another Geneva.

20 O'Brien, pp. 25–26.

21 Based on figures from the annual reports of the Technical Assistance Board (TAB), the Yearbook of the United Nations, and the annual report of the Special Fund.

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23 Padelford, Norman J., “Financial Crisis and the Future of the United Nations,” World Politics, 07 1963 (Vol. 15, No. 4), pp. 531–568, especially p. 536CrossRefGoogle Scholar. These same countries provided a higher percentage of their gross national product than the United States or the United Kingdom. Together the small Western European states contributed a larger percentage of the total than the Soviet Union.

24 Henningsen, in Black and Thompson, p. 99.

25 Jakobson, , in Introduction to Finland, 1963, pp. 72–73Google Scholar.

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