The 143d session of the Governing Body of the International Labor Organization (ILO) was held in Geneva from November 17 to November 20, 1959. As had been decided at its 141st session (March 1959), the Governing Body was given an opportunity at the outset to review the major emphases and trends of ILO's activities and methods of work. This was undertaken as an experiment which the Governing Body could repeat if it deemed it necessary or beneficial. Opening the debate, the United States representative pointed out that ILO's objective of improving the condition of the underdeveloped countries had generally been regarded as most important and that much still remained to be done in that field. He cautioned against the dissipation of efforts on secondary matters, as funds for operational activities were limited and the setting of priorities was therefore imperative. In his opinion, some of the industrial committees had been running out of useful work; he thus suggested substituting for them ad hoc meetings designed to cope with specific regional problems. He also criticized various joint projects ILO had undertaken with other specialized agencies as well as the drafting of rigid instruments which, in his opinion, occupied too much of the Organization's time. In the ensuing discussion, all representatives agreed on the importance and necessity of ILO's operational activities, particularly technical assistance. Several speakers suggested that technical assistance should not be confined to industry but should also be given to agriculture. The representative of West Germany, for one, expressed the view that the Organization should intensify its work in the field of employment and labor-management relations, while the Indian spokesman favored workers’ education programs and vocational training, as well as a long term project for raising living standards in rural areas.

The 36th session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), comprising the 1264th–1303rd meetings, was held in Geneva from July 2, 1963, to August 2, 1963, under the presidency of Mr. A. Patiño (Colombia).

The fifteenth regular session of the contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was held in Tokyo from October 26 to November 20, 1959. The first three days of the session were devoted to an exchange of views between ministerial representatives of the contracting parties, at the conclusion of which a communiqué was published, whereby the ministers: 1) agreed that, as a result of the action taken in recent months by certain countries to make their currencies convertible for non-residents, there was no longer any justification on balance-of-payments grounds for discriminatory restrictions by countries with export earnings largely in convertible currencies; 2) considered that rapid progress could thenceforth be made in elimination of all quantitative restrictions on imports by countries no longer experiencing balance-of-payments difficulties; 3) laid great emphasis on the importance of making every effort to help less developed countries which had not shared fully in the improvement of economic conditions; 4) made frequent reference to the possibly disruptive effect of a sharp increase in exports of manufactured goods from countries where the cost of production was substantially lower than that prevailing in importing countries; and 5) agreed that regional economic arrangements such as the European Economic Community (EEC) or the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) were required to take full account of the trade interests of other countries and to pursue outward-looking policies in accordance with principles and objectives of GATT.

The objectives of the founders of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reflected the dual nature of atomic power: it was the embodiment of both the highest hopes and the deepest fears of mankind. First, the Agency's developmental responsibility was to accelerate the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health, and prosperity throughout the world. Second and equally important was to be the Agency's control function: to create a reliable system of safeguards against diversion of fissionable material to military uses in order that the broadening of the peaceful applications of atomic energy should not increase the danger of strengthening the military potential of nations. Within this broad framework, the Agency was to plan and carry out specific projects and activities. This responsibility was largely to be a function of the Board of Governors, whose establishment was an immediate necessity if IAEA was to begin operations.

Unlike the other countries in what we tend to call “the Soviet bloc,” the Soviet Union benefited financially from the oil crises of the 1970s, for it was a major petroleum and natural gas exporter. The oil crises also benefited the Soviet Union indirectly as a number of radical Third World oil producers acquired money to buy more Soviet arms. Moreover, the windfall increase in petroleum prices was supplemented by a similar windfall increase in the price of the other major Soviet export product, gold. The subsidies that the Soviet Union provided to Eastern Europe did not entail any sacrifice of resources that had been previously committed but required only that it forgo even greater gains. The politics underlying the Soviet decisions were the politics underlying the rapid expansion of export earnings.

The problem of security (“a feeling of safety, whether founded on fact or delusion”, “freedom from danger, care or anxiety”) is inevitably seen in different perspective from Washington and Hanoi, from Canberra and Tokyo, from New Delhi, Singapore, Djakarta and Peking. It is at once global and regional; it assumes different proportions when viewed by the Burman rice coolie and the Japanese factory worker, the Californian industrialist and the Malayan rubber planter, the Melbourne factory worker and the Whitehall administrator.

At a meeting of the Danube Commission in December 1951, a Soviet proposal that only states whose vessels were directly involved in an accident on the Danube should take part in its investigation was approved. Yugoslavia objected to the proposal as a violation of the sovereign rights of the riparian states which, Yugoslavia felt, should investigate any accident which occurred in its territory. At a further meeting of the commission at Galatz, Rumania, in July 1952, a commission was set up to examine a Yugoslav proposal toamend the rules of procedure and the Statute. A Yugoslav motion that this commission report to the next session of the commission in December 1952, was rejected; no date was set for further action on the Yugoslav resolution. The Yugoslav delegate (Djurich) maintained that, at present, the commission was not independent but was controlled by the Soviet Union; the purpose of his government's resolution, he continued, would be to make the organization more representative.

The semi-annual report of the Director-General (Kingsley) covering the period from July 1, 1949 to December 31, 1949 stated that during the second half of 1949 the organization had re-established refugees at an average rate of about 27,800 per month. By December 31, 1949 the total had reached 758,923, of whom 68,778 had been repatriated and 690,145 had resettled in new countries. Late in the year, however, severe reductions in the United States and Australian programs intervened, so that in December only 19,043 were resettled. The last six months of 1949 had emphasized programs implementing decisions of the General Council to extend the life of IRO into 1951, establish a series of date lines in order to keep the organization's responsibilities within the limits of the time and funds at its disposal, intensify and broaden the counselling program to obtain as complete and accurate view possible of the task remaining and to budget up to $22,000,000 for use in solving the “hard core” problem.

This issue covers the work of the Security Council from the 646th meeting on December 11, 1953, to the 660th meeting on February 24, 1954.

On March 23, 1961, it was announced that the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) had formally taken over its main joint research center when the Italian government's nuclear research center at Ispra was handed over to Euratom President Etienne Hirsch. By the end of 1962 the staff at the center, which was to be not only the main Euratom research center but also its only general-purpose one, was expected to number 1,500. Other joint research centers were being set up at Mol, Belgium; Karlsruhe, Germany; and Patten, the Netherlands. It was also announced that a plan had been set up to build the European Transuranium Institute alongside the Nuclear Research Institute at Karlsruhe, Germany.

Scholarship on human rights diplomacy (HRD)—efforts by government officials to engage publicly and privately with their foreign counterparts—often focuses on actions taken to “name and shame” target countries because private diplomatic activities are unobservable. To understand how HRD works in practice, we explore a campaign coordinated by the US government to free twenty female political prisoners. We compare release rates of the featured women to two comparable groups: a longer list of women considered by the State Department for the campaign; and other women imprisoned simultaneously in countries targeted by the campaign. Both approaches suggest that the campaign was highly effective. We consider two possible mechanisms through which expressive public HRD works: by imposing reputational costs and by mobilizing foreign actors. However, in-depth interviews with US officials and an analysis of media coverage find little evidence of these mechanisms. Instead, we argue that public pressure resolved deadlock within the foreign policy bureaucracy, enabling private diplomacy and specific inducements to secure the release of political prisoners. Entrepreneurial bureaucrats leveraged the spotlight on human rights abuses to overcome competing equities that prevent government-led coercive diplomacy on these issues. Our research highlights the importance of understanding the intersection of public and private diplomacy before drawing inferences about the effectiveness of HRD.

The resumed 34th session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), comprising the 1237th–1241st meetings, was held on December 18—20, 1962, under the presidency of Mr. Jerzy Michalowski (Poland). The major substantive issue discussed by the Council during this session was the report of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), which was considered at the 1239th meeting. In this connection, the Council had before it four draft resolutions: 1) recommending the expulsion of Portugal from ECA; 2) calling for the suspension of South Africa from ECA; 3) requesting ECA to reconsider its recommendation concerning the status of Spain, the United Kingdom, and France in the Commission; and 4) taking note of ECA's report and endorsing the program of work and priorities contained therein.

In these closing decades of the twentieth century modern man is a paradox of extremes. He possesses untold knowledge and wealth, but these have brought no universal end to the indignity of poverty and ignorance. He has conquered space, but on earth he is unable to overcome conflicts and inequities. His mastery of science and technology gives him unprecedented power, but his living world is threatened as at no time since his planetary home first gave him warmth and shelter.

From the time of the Marshall Plan to the present, American policy toward Europe has been guided simultaneously by two aspirations. One has been to see western Europe unified, the other—stemming from the conviction that the fate of the United States is inextricably tied to that of Europe—has been to create strong bonds among the Atlantic nations. Until quite recently it was believed that these two aspirations stood in a kind of predetermined harmony to each other: the more tightly the European nations would band together, gaining strength and prosperity from their union, the better it would be for all members of the Atlantic Community; and the more intimately Europe was linked with the United States, the more Europe, as a unit, would stand to gain.

The state of China — a nation of possibly 460,000,000 people — has been a Member of the United Nations since the foundation of that organization in 1945. As a Member, China is legally entitled to representation in United Nations organs unless and until, pursuant to preventive or enforcement action taken by the Security Council, the exercise of the rights and privileges of membership may be suspended by the General Assembly upon recommendation of the Security Council. The representatives of China in United Nations organs from 1945 to the present have been accredited by the National Government of the Republic of China. By the end of 1949 control over the mainland of China and over perhaps 450,000,000 people had passed from the National Government to the (communist) “Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China,” the effective control of the National Government having been reduced largely to the island of Formosa.

Listed below is the membership of UN bodies for 1961. Unless otherwise noted, membership expires on December 31 of the year indicated.

The twenty-sixth annual report of the Bank for International Settlements was published on June II, 1956. In its survey of the year April 1, 1955—March 31, 1956, the report declared that the most important feature of 1955 was that the effect of an economic boom in North America had been superimposed on the powerful forces for expansion operating in western Europe. There was a definite need, however, for measures which would moderate the boom without weakening the forces tending to promote healthy economic growth. For this reason, direct internal or external controls had not been reapplied by the authorities and trade had been further liberalized, while restrictions on foreign payments had also been further relaxed. There had been a continuation of flexibility in credit policies pursued by the authorities who had employed methods of credit restraint, such as increased interest rates.

Compelling as mathematical representations may seem to some interested in the “automaticity” of integration processes, to other empirical theorists they seem anything but obviously relevant. Yet there is a clear trend toward greater use of formal reasoning in both measurement and modeling work on integration processes. Juxtaposing a variety of such integration logics—the mathematical formulae and conceptual abstractions incorporated in assessments of integration progress and regress—should help achieve the major purpose of this article: to introduce students to a variety of possible integration logics, some of their possible interrelationships, and the limitations of some of the simpler ones vis-à-vis current verbal theories of the integration process.

The following summary covers the activities of the Security Council at its 707th meeting on December 16, 1955, and from its 709th meeting on December 22, 1955, through its 716th meeting on February 6, 1956.

The 43d session of the International Labor Conference was held in Geneva from June 3 to 25, 1959, under the presidency of Mr. E. Dreyer (Danish government delegate). The Conference was attended by over 900 delegates, advisers, and observers from 75 member countries and 15 territories, including the Ministers of Labor from 41 countries.