Western europeans and Others: The making of europe at the united nations

Alternatives

Volumn 33, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 359-381

  Götz, Norbert ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI   (Finland)

Author keywords

Bloc politics; Foreign policy; Identity; United Nations; Western Europe

Indexed keywords

EID: 57349147103     PISSN: 03043754     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/030437540803300305     Document Type: Review

References (79)

1. Katie Verlin Laatikainen and Karen E. Smith, eds., The European Union at the United Nations: Intersecting Multilateralisms (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).
2. Sabine von Schorlemer, "'Gemeinsam stärker?' Regionalgruppen in der UNO," in Klaus Dicke and Manuel Fröhlich, eds., Wege multilateraler Diplomatie: Politik, Handlungsmöglichkeiten und Entscheidungsstrukturen im UN-System (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2005), pp. 26-40, at 40.
3. Thomas Hovet, Bloc Politics in the United Nations (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960), p. 96.
4. Ibid., pp. 1-5.
5. Leland M. Goodrich and Edvard Hambro, Charter of the United Nations: Commentary and Documents, 2d rev. ed. (Boston: World Peace Foundation, 1949), p. 202.
6. Minutes of Norwegian delegation meeting at the General Assembly, October 20, 1954, National Archives, Oslo (NAO), Foreign Ministry (FM) 1950-1959, 26.5/2.
7. "1192 (XII): Composition of the General Commitee of the General Assembly," Resolutions and Decisions Adopted by the General Assembly During Its Session, 12 (1957): 9.
8. Sam Daws, "The Origins and Development of the UN Electoral Groups," in Ramesh Thakur, ed., What Is Equitable Geographic Representation in the Twenty-first Century? Report of a Seminar Held by the International Peace Academy and the United Nations University, March 26, 1999, New York (Tokyo: United Nations University, 1999), pp. 11-29, at 17-18.
9. General Assembly, Official Records, Special Political Committee 1957, p. 171.
10. "1991 (XVIII): Question of Equitable Representation on the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council," Resolutions and Decisions Adopted by the General Assembly During Its Session [in hereafter, GA Resolutions and Decisions], 18 (1963): 21-22.
11. "2847 (XXVI): Enlargement of the Economic and Social Council," GA Resolutions and Decisions, 26 (1971): 67-68.
12. "477 (V): Permanent Invitation to the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States to Attend Sessions of the General Assembly," GA Resolutions and Decisions, 5 (1950), p. 74.
13. Peter Brückner, "The European Community and the United Nations," European Journal of International Law 1 (1990); see www.ejil.org/journal/Vol.1/No1/art8.
14. "3208 (XXIX): Status of the European Economic Community in the General Assembly," GA Resolutions and Decisions, 29 (1974): 2.
15. Paul Luif, EU Cohesion in the UN General Assembly (Paris: European Union Institute for Security Studies, 2003).
16. Mildred J. Peterson, The General Assembly in World Politics (Boston, Mass.: Allen & Unwin, 1986), p. 291.
17. Secret note on a conversation of the Norwegian foreign minister, Halvard Lange, with the British minister of state, Hector McNeil, November 24, 1947, NAO, FM 1940-1949, 25.1/2.
18. Confidential letter from the Danish legation, The Hague, October 12, 1951, National Archives, Copenhagen (NAC), Foreign Ministry (FM) 1946-1972, 119.H.1.1951.
19. Letter by Hans Engen, January 18, 1956, NAO, FM 1950-1959, 26.6/62.
20. Minutes of Norwegian delegation meeting at the General Assembly, November 4, 1952, NAO, FM 1950-1959, 26.5/2.
21. Minutes of the meeting, October 6, 1954, NAC, FM 1946-1972, 119.H.1.1954.
22. Letter by Engen, January 2, 1956, NAO, FM 1950-1959, 26.6/62.
23. Confidential letter by Oscar Thorsing, January 18, 1956, FM Archives, Stockholm (FMAS), HP 48 D, vol. 47.
24. Note by Per Nævndal, February 23, 1956, NAO, FM 1950-1959, 26.6/62.
25. Hovet, note 3, p. 91; Beate Lindemann, EG-Staaten und Vereinte Nationen: Die politische Zusammenarbeit der Neun in den UN-Hauptorganen (München: Oldenbourg, 1978), pp. 55-61.
26. There is a large measure of ambivalence in the sources in regard to use of the terms "European" and "Western European"; the terms are largely exchangeable and usually refer to Europe west and south of the Iron Curtain. However, while Greece, Turkey, and Yugoslavia were considered to belong politically to the Western group of countries at the end of the 1950s and early 1960s, they were still considered Eastern European countries according to the geographical rotation scheme. The special role of Communist Yugoslavia, with its policy of nonalignment, is sometimes insinuated amid talk of Western European meetings with special mention of Yugoslavia.
27. Letter, January 2, 1956, NAO, FM 1950-1959, 26.6/62.
28. Confidential instructions, February 13, 1956, NAO, FM 1950-1959, 26.6/62.
29. Confidential letter, January 18, 1956, FMAS, HP 48 D, vol. 47.
30. Letter by Arne S. Lundberg, January 25, 1956, FMAS, HP 48 D, vol. 47.
31. Memo by Stig Rynell, on a conversation with Italian diplomat Manca, March 5, 1956, FMAS, HP 48 A, vol. 15.
32. Letter by Karl I. Eskelund, Denmark's UN representative, March 16, 1956, NAC, FM 1946-1972, 119.H.12.
33. Confidential letter by Leif Edwardsen, permanent mission to the United Nations, to the Norwegian foreign ministry, June 6, 1966, Foreign Ministry Archives, Oslo (FMAO), 1960-1969, 26.2/51.
34. Letter by Karl I. Eskelund to the Danish foreign ministry, March 16, 1956, NAC, FM 1946-1972, 119.H.12.
35. Memo, February 15, 1965, FMAS, HP 48 A, vol. 20.
36. In the secretary general's reports on geographical distribution in the secretariat, Yugoslavia was moved to the Eastern European region in 1962, after having figured as a Western European state in the period 1959-1961;
37. see Sydney Dawson Bailey, The General Assembly of the United Nations: A Study of Procedure and Practice (New York: Praeger, 1964), p. 31.
38. Ibid., pp. 31, 33.
39. Confidential letter by Leif Edwardsen, August 6, 1965, FMAO, 1960-1969, 26.2/51;
40. the quote on '"homeless" states,'" which might be seen as describing the dilemma of Israel using traditional anti-Semite imagery, is taken from a letter by Sverker Aström, February 3, 1964, FMAS, HP 48 A, vol. 18;
41. for the characterization of New Zealand as a marginal group member, see Hans Tabor, Diplomat blandt Politikere: Erindringer (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1995), p. 129;
42. on the decision on Israel and South Africa, see Daws, note 8, p. 22.
43. Confidential letter by Edwardsen, August 6, 1965, FMAO, 1960-1969, 26.2/51.
44. Letter by Aström, February 3, 1964, FMAS, HP 48 A, vol. 18.
45. Letter by Aström, February 10, 1964, FMAS, HP 48 A, vol. 18.
46. Memo, FMAS, HP 48 D, vol. 86.
47. Memo, FMAS, HP 48 D, vol. 86.
48. Cable by the embassy in Stockholm, February 2, 1967, FMAO, 1960-1969, 26.2/51.
49. Confidential cable from the permanent mission in New York, January 31, 1967, FMAO, 1960-1969, 26.2/51.
50. Cable by Richard Hichens Bergström, chief of the political division in the Swedish foreign ministry, to Sverker Aström, February 13, 1967, FMAS, HP 48 D, vol. 93.
51. Cable and comment, February 12, 1967, FMAS, HP 48 D, vol. 93.
52. Cable by Aström, February 28, 1967, FMAS, HP 48 D, vol. 93.
53. Confidential cable, January 31, 1967, FMAO, 1960-1969, 26.2/51.
54. Confidential letter by Aström, February 7, 1967, FMAS, HP 48 D, vol. 93.
55. Letter by Edvard Hambro, March 22, 1967, FMAO, 1960-1969, 26.2/51.
56. Letter by Wilhelm Wachtmeister, July 9, 1968, FMAS, HP 48 D, vol. 97.
57. "Report by the Foreign Ministers of the Member States on the Problems of Political Unification," Bulletin of the European Communities 3 (1970) 11:9-14.
58. Brückner, note 13.
59. Cable by Thune Andersen, April 26, 1972, NAC, FM 1946-72, 119.H.21.
60. Memo, Danish foreign ministry, February 12, 1973, NAC, FM 1973-88, 119.H.21.
61. Confidential cable by Troels Oldenburg, February 13, 1973, NAC, FM 1973-88, 119.H.21.
62. Confidential cable by Otto Borch, February 16, 1973, NAC, FM 1973-88, 119.H.21.
63. See confidential memorandum by Klaus Otto Kapel, May 17, 1974, NAC, FM 1973-88, 119.H.21; the quote is taken from a confidential cable by Andersen, July 13, 1973, ibid.
64. Confidential cable by Borch, February 12 1973, NAC, FM 1973-88, 119.H.21.
65. Cable foreign ministry to permanent mission, February 28, 1973, NAC, FM 1973-88, 119.H.21.
66. Confidential cable by Borch, February 17, 1973, NAC, FM 1973-88, 119.H.21.
67. "Second Report on European Political Cooperation on Foreign Policy," Bulletin of the European Communities 6 (1973) 9: 14-21, at 14-15, 17.
68. "Document on the European Identity Published by the Nine Foreign Ministers (Copenhagen 14 December 1973)," European Political Cooperation, 5th ed. (Bonn: Press and Information Office, Federal Republic of Germany, 1988), pp. 48-54, at 48-49, 53-54.
69. Cable by Borch, January 31, 1974, NAC, FM 1973-88, 119.H.21.
70. Confidential memo, Klaus Otto Kapel, May 17, 1974, NAC, FM 1973-88, 119.H.21.
71. Confidential summary of a meeting of the EC working group on the United Nations, May 21-22, 1974, in Bonn, NAC, FM 1973-88, 119.H.21.
72. Confidential foreign ministry memo, January 17, 1975, NAC, FM 1973-88, 119.H.21.
73. Luif, note 15, pp. 9-10.
74. Cable by Henning Hjorth-Nielsen, March 3, 1976, NAC, FM 1973-88, 119.H.21.
75. Cable, December 18, 1975, FMAO, 1970-1979, 26.5/82.
76. Bardo Fassbender, "The Better Peoples of the United Nations? Europe's Practice and the United Nations," European Journal of International Law 15 (2004), pp. 857-884, at 862, 884.
77. Ibid., p. 884.
78. On the concept of parliamentary diplomacy, cf. Norbert Götz, "On the Origins of 'Parliamentary Diplomacy': Scandinavian 'Bloc Politics' and Delegation Policy in the League of Nations," Cooperation and Conflict 40 (2005), pp. 263-279.
79. In this connection, it might be added that the United States is nowadays associated to the WEOG. Israel, admitted as a temporary member in May 2000, has been granted permanent temporary status in the group's activities in New York in May 2004 (thereby being committed to continue to seek membership in its "natural" Asian group; cf. www.israel-un.org/israel-un/weog). While the majority of immigrants to Israel have been Jews from Arab countries, the foundation of this project of the Jewish state in the Middle East is clearly European.