PAFMECA was formed at a conference held in Mwanza, Tanganyika, from September 16 to 18, 1958, for the purpose of coordinating regional activities toward the achievement of independence for territories in East and Central Africa. The conference, which was attended by representatives of political parties from Kenya, Nyasaland, Tanganyika, Uganda, and Zanzibar, considered the following issues: 1) the position of those present toward (a) the non-African minorities in Kenya, Tanganyika, and Uganda, and (b) the Central African Federation (Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia, and Southern Rhodesia); 2) methods for achieving coordinated action among the nationalist movements in East and Central Africa and for pooling resources in a concerted drive against imperialism; and 3) the development of a fundamental philosophic creed for the emergent African nations.

The convention of the newest European economic organization, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), was initialed in Stockholm, Sweden, on November 20, 1959, by cabinet ministers of Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Under terms of the Stockholm agreement, according to the press, the seven nations were to eliminate trade barriers toward each other on a gradual basis designed to bring full free trade by 1970. Import tariffs in force on January 1, 1960, were due to be reduced 20 percent as of July 1, with subsequent tariff cuts at the rate of 10 percent a year. In addition to gradual mutual freedom of trade, the seven nations agreed to economic integration and harmonization of wages, social benefits, and other production cost factors. However, unlike the six members of the European Economic Community (EEC), the seven planned to retain their national tariff systems toward the exports of non-members.

According to the press, the four experts appointed by the Council of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) in January 1960 for the purpose of drawing up plans for a body to succeed OEEC recommended, in a report published on April 20, 1960, the establishment of a new economic organization linking Europe with North America, to be called the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The principal difference between the proposed organization and OEEC, apart from the full membership of the United States and Canada, was to be its emphasis on the promotion of economic growth and development in Asia and Africa. The supreme body of the organization was to be a council of ministers with powers identical to those of the parallel OEEC body; that is, member governments would be expected to conform to its decisions, which were to be taken unanimously. However, any country was to have the right to abstain by disclaiming interest in the subject under discussion, thereby freeing itself of the obligation to carry out the resulting decisions. The daily operations of the organization were to be directed by a secretary-general of wide political prestige, appointed for a five-year term. The report also envisaged the establishment of a preparatory committee to decide which of OEEC's tasks should be continued by the new organization.

It was announced on November 19, 1959, that France had purchased $200 million from the International Monetary Fund, thereby reducing the Fund's holdings of French francs to 98 percent of the French quota. A one-year$100 million stand-by arrangement between the government of Argentina and the Fund was announced on December 1, 1959; this was to enable the Argentine government to carry forward its program of economic stabilization, which was to be supplemented by additional credits from other quarters. Specifically, the arrangement was to provide for general payment support and help maintain an orderly foreign exchange system; it brought Argentina's outstanding drawings from the Fund to $117.5 million. On December 21, 1959, the Fund announced a stand-by arrangement with the Dominican Republic, which authorized it to draw up to $11,250,000 during the following twelve months, thereby enabling the government to undertake a stabilization program needed to offset the declining export earnings affecting the Dominican Republic. Lasdy, on March 1, 1960, the government of Peru entered into a one-year stand-by arrangement with the Fund for an amount of $27.5 million in support of its efforts to achieve economic and financial stability and to counteract the inflationary pressures the country had been experiencing.

The first extraordinary session of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Assembly was convened at headquarters in Montreal from June 19 to 21, 1961, at the request of twelve of the contracting states, to consider increasing the size of the ICAO Council. The delegate of the United Kingdom proposed a change in article 50(a) of the ICAO convention to provide for 27 members of the ICAO Council instead of 21, and delegates of Venezuela, Cameroun, and South Africa immediately supported the increase. Among arguments advanced for expanding the Council were the following: 1) a Council of 21 no longer adequately represented the membership of the organization, which had reached 86; 2) adequate geographic representation was of paramount importance since international routes covered most of the world; 3) the increase would facilitate the participation in the Council's work of the more than twenty states that had achieved independence in the past few years; 4) the practice of holding an Assembly session only every three years placed greater responsibilities on the Council; and 5) all the specialized agencies except ICAO and the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization had increased the size of their executive bodies. Although there was some debate as to whether the increase ought to be to 25 or 27 members, the United Kingdom motion for the latter number prevailed, along with a proposal sponsored by the Italian and Venezuelan delegations stating that it was highly desirable for the amendment to the convention to come into force before the next Assembly session. Consequently, all contracting states to the convention were urged to ratify the amendment as soon as possible.

The January 14, 1960, meeting of the Council of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was preceded by a meeting of representatives of the organization's eighteen members and of the United States and Canada to examine the resolutions adopted by a special economic conference. At this meeting, which ended with approval of a move sponsored by the United States that was designed to reorganize economic cooperation and transform the organization, it was decided, and subsequently approved by the OEEC Council and the United States and Canada, that: 1) four experts, representing respectively North America, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the European Economic Community (EEC) and other European nations, would prepare a report on the transformation of OEEC for consideration by senior officials of twenty countries, namely, the OEEC nations and the United States and Canada, at a meeting scheduled for April 19, 1960; 2) a preparatory meeting of representatives of the same twenty nations would be held in a month's time, when decisions would be taken to appoint a permanent chairman, a secretariat, and working parties to look into outstanding trade problems; and 3) a group, consisting of Canada, France, West Germany, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, the United States, the United Kingdom, and a representative of EEC, would be informally set up to coordinate aid policies to underdeveloped countries. The outcome of the discussions was regarded as paving the way for a new Atlantic economic grouping, composed of the members of OEEC plus the United States and Canada, which would give priority to consideration of the problems between the two rival European economic groups, EEC and EFTA. Other matters discussed by the Council were the removal of discriminatory measures against imports from the dollar zone and the increase in assistance to underdeveloped countries.

At the 973d meeting the situation in the Congo was once again brought to the attention of the President of the Security Council, in a letter from the permanent representatives of Ethiopia, Nigeria, and the Sudan delineating conditions in Katanga caused by the lawless acts of mercenaries. Following communications from these respective delegations, representatives of Ethiopia, Belgium, India, and the Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville) were invited, at their request, to participate in the debate.

The thirteenth session of the Executive Committee of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) was held in Geneva from May 11 to 30, 1961, under the chairmanship of Mr. A. Viaut, President of the organization. As usual two working committees were set up on: administrative and financial questions, and technical questions. Discussions in plenary were based mainly on the reports of these committees. Following the presentation of reports on the meetings of regional associations and commissions, the report of the working group set up to study the revision of the WMO convention was heard and discussed. General agreement was reached on the substance of amendments proposed for some articles, and a provisional text was submitted to a legal expert for study and report. With regard to the WMO general regulations, it was decided that modifications arising from the proposed amendments to the convention should be studied after the amendments had been approved. The Executive Committee considered reports on the WMO field programs under the UN Expanded Program of Technical Assistance (EPTA) for 1960 and for the period 1961–1962. The need was stressed for field visits, in particular to the newly independent countries, to help them in the assessment of their requirements for technical assistance. Plans for future training seminars under EPTA were discussed and the Committee recognized in particular, in view of the increasing interest in water resources development, the importance of holding training seminars on hydrological forecasting. The Executive Committee also took note of the training seminars—organized in Cairo, Bangkok, and Nicosia and carried out under joint International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)-WMO auspices—on forecasting for operations of turbine-engined aircraft.

The Assembly of Western European Union (WEU) held the first part of its sixth ordinary session in Paris from May 31 to June 3, 1960. After Mr. Badini Confalonieri (Italian Liberal) had been reelected President of the Assembly, the first item of business was the presentation of the fifth report of the Council of WEU, covering the period from January 1 to December 31, 1959, by Mr. van Houten, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and Chairman ad interim of the Council. In connection with the transfer of social and cultural activities from WEU to the Council of Europe, he pointed out that, by means of partial agreements, the seven governments of WEU remained free to undertake new activities either among themselves or within the framework of the WEU Council, and that only the implementation of current activities was to become the responsibility of the Council of Europe. Speaking next of the Standing Armaments Committee and of the Agency for the Control of Armaments, Mr. van Houten stated that the procedure for cooperation in the field of equipment formulated by the Committee had been successful and that the Control Agency had continued to develop its activities. Concluding his report, he pointed to the importance of political consultations within WEU as a means of enabling members to discuss differences of opinion and thereby come nearer to a solution. In the general debate which followed, members stressed the importance of cooperation in armaments and civil defense.

On June 3, 1960, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced an agreement with three other investors to invest the equivalent of £2.3 million in the Kilombero Sugar Company, Ltd., in Tanganyika, for a sugar production and refining project estimated to cost £3.2 million, production to begin in 1962. The investment was represented by the equivalent of £1.15 million in debentures bearing 7 percent interest and maturing by 1973; by, £500,000 in convertible income notes maturing by 1975 without fixed interest and bearing returns contingent on earnings; by, £650,000 in share capital; and by an option on ordinary shares. Additional financing for the project was to come from an issue of convertible preferred shares, totaling, £700,000, by the Standard Bank of South Africa and the Colonial Development Corporation, to be offered for sale to residents of Tanganyika.

Following an investigation resulting from the request by the government of Venezuela that the Council of the Organizationof American States (OAS) ask the Inter-American Peace Committee to look into the flagrant and widespread violations of human rights by the government of the Dominican Republic, the Committee, in a special report, allegedly concurred with the charges, stressing its opinion that international tensions in the Caribbean had increased and would continue to increase, so long as the Dominican Republic persisted in its repressive policies. On the basis of evidence collected during its four-month investigation, the Committee condemned such practices as the denial of free assembly and free speech, arbitrary arrest, cruel and inhuman treatment of political prisoners, and the use of intimidation and terror as political weapons. Despite reports of 1,000 arrests for subversive activities, the Dominican Republic had accounted for only 222 such arrests and had pointed to acts of elemency granted to many of these people; the Committee had, however, been barred from visiting the country. Desirous nevertheless of avoiding any step which might adversely affect the fate of the political prisoners, and in the hope that the Dominican Republic would decree an amnesty on Easter, April 17, the Committee postponed making a pronouncement on the case; instead, it merely issued a general report on April 14 on the relationship between violations of human rights and the political tensions affecting the peace of the Hemisphere. In the later special report the Committee noted that the hope of an amnesty had turned out to be unfounded, and that it had therefore decided to examine all the information available to it, mosdy in the form either of testimony from exiles and other nationals who had recently been in the Dominican Republic or of extensive and reliable press material.

The sixth annual meeting of the Council of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was held in Washington, D.C., from May 31 to June 2, 1960, under the chairmanship of the United States Secretary of State, Mr. Christian A. Herter. The inaugural address was delivered by Mr. Richard M. Nixon, Vice-President of the United States. Members of the organization were represented by either their prime ministers or their foreign ministers, according to the press.

The press announced that the Inter-American Economic and Social Council met in Punta del Este, Uruguay, under the auspices of the Organization of American States (OAS) from August 5 to 17, 1961. A draft act embodying the principles of the “Alliance for Progress” plan for the economic development of Latin America envisaged by the United States was put before the meeting by the delegates of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and the United States, according to press reports. Mr. Douglas Dillon, United States Secretary of the Treasury, promised that his government would provide active assistance in the form of development loans running up to 50 years, but Mr. Dillon made it clear that the development scheme depended on the local programs for social and economic advancement. It was noted that aside from the United States offers, some European and odier countries had indicated that they would take part in development programs in the area.

We analyze the design of an international climate agreement. In particular, we consider two goals of such an agreement: overcoming free-rider problems and adjusting for differences in mitigation costs between countries. Previous work suggests that it is difficult to achieve both of these goals at once under asymmetric information because countries free ride by exaggerating their abatement costs. We argue that independent information collection (investigations) by an international organization can alleviate this problem. In fact, though the best implementable climate agreement without investigations fails to adjust for individual differences even with significant enforcement power, a mechanism with investigations allows adjustment and can enable implementation of the socially optimal agreement. Furthermore, when the organization has significant enforcement power, the optimal agreement is achievable even with minimal investigative resources (and vice versa). The results suggest that discussions about institutions for climate cooperation should focus on information collection as well as enforcement.

Prominent theories of state formation hold that states formed because of warfare and competition on the one hand, or the diffusion of organizational templates and practices through learning and emulation on the other. We propose that the two strands of theory can be linked to more accurately account for mechanisms of state formation. War, we argue, is an important source of social diffusion. War establishes contacts between political elites across borders, generates migratory flows, and establishes new economic networks. We examine the validity of the theory through a comparative case study of Nordic political units from the dawn of the Viking Age to the end of the High Middle Ages (CE 800–1300), finding that raids, settlements, and conquests by Norwegian and Danish rulers in England, Europe's most advanced kingdom, set in motion state formation processes in Norway and Denmark. In these cases, the winners emulated the losers.

Meetings of the Commission

The nineteenth meeting of the Caribbean Commission was held in Trinidad, instead of French Guiana as originally scheduled, from November 29 to December 4, 1954, under the chairmanship of H. R. van Houten (Netherlands). Because of the last minute change in the site, it was agreed to make the meeting a purely working session. The substantive work of the meeting took place in committees which studied the various items on the agenda and prepared reports for the plenary session; the principal items on the agenda concerned the proposed work program and budget for 1955. At the final session the report of the Central Secretariat's activities since the eighteenth meeting was approved by the Commission, which noted with satisfaction the increased number of requests for information received by the Secretariate. The Commission also approved the 1955 work program which included various conferences, meetings, and two cacao cultivation tours in Trinidad. The Secretary-General was directed by the Commission to request the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for the following: 1) a fellowship to be given for the training of a Caribbean home economist who would be appointed to work with the Commission after she had finished her training; 2) a forestry expert and a fisheries expert to be assigned to the Caribbean area; and 3) a three-week training course in home economics in the French Caribbean Departments. The latter request was also to be presented to the United States Foreign Operations Administration. The Commission approved in principle the recommendation of the Joint Conference on Education and Small-Scale Farming that the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) assignan educational consultant to the area to beattached to the Central Secretariat. In accordance with a recommendation of the Trade PromotionConference, the Commission agreed that a trade promotion officer should be attached to its staff at the Central Secretariat. The Commission decided to convene in 1956 a Conference on Cooperatives in the Caribbean, jointly sponsored by the Commission and the FAO, and a Conference on Town and Country Development Planning.

The Management Council of the Consultative Committee for Postal Studies of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) held its annual session in Tokyo on October 2–22, 1961. In view of the proximity of the fifteenth Universal Postal Congress, which was to meet in 1963, the Council decided not to meet in 1962. The 1961 plenary meetings of the Council were preceded by meetings of 24 working groups, which discussed the technical, business, and economic problems of post office management.

The tenth annual meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic Development in South and Southeast Asia was held in Seattle, Washington, November 10–13, 1958. At the meeting the committee's seventh annual report was adopted. It was reported that President Eisenhower, who attended the conference, outlined a five point plan for economic growth which called for expanded international trade; more technical assistance; more private investment; public loans on normal bankable terms; and development financing to provide to the borrower flexibility regarding terms of repayment. Mr. Eisenhower observed that the Development Loan Fund established in 1957 by the United States Congress had given more than half its loans to the Colombo Plan countries. Additions to the fund were needed since Colombo Plan nations had requested further loans for projects which exceeded the resources of the fund. He suggested that progress would be hastened if other more developed countries were to act to meet these growing needs and said that the United States would welcome the contributions of other countries to this end. He spoke of the possibility of creating an international development association for this purpose, as an affiliate of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. During the committee's session, it was pointed out by some participants that less developed countries should prepare a satisfactory climate, with investment safeguards, if large private investments were to be expected. Several representatives from less developed areas concurred in this position, referring to steps already taken in this direction. It was decided to hold the next annual meeting of the committee in Indonesia.