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The Organization of Responsibility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

William W. Kaufmann
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Extract

Wishes have been the fathers to many thoughts, but wishes alone have never sired an effective international organization. It is only when the desirable and the possible have been brought into some sort of relation with each other that plans for international organization have ever had any chance of succeeding. This statement is of course a truism; anything which succeeds must have been possible. Can one, however, make any statements about the limits of what is possible without waiting for the historical record to complete itself? In the field of international organization failure to undertake this task has resulted in many cruel disappointments, and unfounded optimism has given way to uninformed cynicism. It is therefore of some interest to consider some of the ways in which the stubborn facts of international life condition the range of choice within which men of good will may hope to act successfully.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , July 1949 , pp. 511 - 532
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1949

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References

1 Miller, David Hunter, The Drafting of the Covenant, 2 vols., New York, Putnam's, 1928, vol. I, pp. 164 ff.Google Scholar

2 Zimmern, Alfred, The League of Nations and the Rule of Law, London, 1936, p. 257.Google Scholar

3 Burton, Margaret E., The Assembly of the League of Nations, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1941, pp. 19–21.Google Scholar It is interesting to note howclosely these old proposal' have been followed in the constitution of the new Council of Europe.

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6 Ibid., pp. 334.

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13 Hull, , op. cit., vol. IIGoogle Scholar, Part Eight, provides the fullest account so far of American plans for the United Nations.

14 Ibid., vol. II, p. 1684.

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18 Documents of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, San Fran cisco, 1945, “Summary Reports of the Executive Committee,” April 30, 1945.

19 Ibid., “Verbatim Records of the Plenary Sessions,” April 30, 1945.

20 Ibid., “Summary Reports of the Executive Committee,” May 1, 1945.

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23 For the interesting comment by Mr. Stettinius, see Charter of the United Nations, op. cit., p. 14.