Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
War I. Woodrow Wilson, president of the United
States, proposed an international organization that
would include all the states of the world (fewer than 75
states existed at that point), leading to the creation of
the League of Nations in 1919. Even though it was the
idea of an American president, the United States was
among the countries that did not join this organiza-
tion because isolationists in the U.S. Senate opposed
joining. In all, 63 states participated in the League,
although the total membership at any single time never
reached that number. Costa Rica and Brazil left the
League even before 1930; Germany departed in 1933,
shortly before the Soviet Union joined in 1934. The
League later expelled the Soviet Union in 1939 for
invading Finland. The League was born of a world-
wide desire to prevent future aggression, but the fail-
ure of the United States to join dealt the organization a
severe blow. In the mid-1930s, the League had a major
opportunity when Ethiopia's Haile Selassie made a dra-
matic appeal for help in the face of an invasion by Italy,
a member state until 1937. The League failed to take
action, and in the chaos of the beginning of World War
II the organization collapsed.
Even though the League of Nations ceased func-
tioning, it spawned other supranational organizations.
Between World War I and World War II, states cre-
ated the Permanent Court of International Justice to
adjudicate legal issues between states, such as bound-
ary disputes and fi shing rights. The League of Nations
also initiated international negotiations on maritime
boundaries and related aspects of the law of the sea. The
conferences organized by the League laid the ground-
work for the fi nal resolution of the size of territorial seas
decades later.
After World War II, states formed a new organi-
zation to foster international security and cooperation:
the United Nations (UN). Membership in the UN has
grown signifi cantly since its inception in 1947 (Fig. 8.23).
A handful of states still do not belong to the United
Nations, but with the most recent additions in 2006, it
now has 192 member states. The United Nations orga-
nization includes numerous less visible but nonetheless
signifi cant subsidiaries, including the FAO (Food and
Agriculture Organization), UNESCO (United Nations
Educational, Scientifi c and Cultural Organization), and
WHO (World Health Organization). Not all United
Nations members participate in every United Nations
subsidiary, but many people around the world have ben-
efi ted from their work.
We can fi nd evidence of the United Nations' work
in the “world” section of any major newspaper. UN
peacekeeping troops have helped maintain stability in
some of the most contentious regions of the world. The
United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees is
called upon to aid refugees in crises in far-fl ung places.
UN documents on human rights standards, such as the
Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, and the Covenant on Eco-
nomic and Social Rights, set a precedent and laid the
groundwork for countless human rights groups working
in the world today.
By participating in the United Nations, states commit
to internationally approved standards of behavior. Many
states still violate the standards embodied in the United
Nations Charter, but such violations can lead to collective
action, such as economic sanctions or Security Council-
supported military action. The United Nations' actions
in South Africa (Apartheid) and Iraq (the Gulf War) are
examples of UN success, but the organization has its crit-
ics as well. Some argue that the composition of its Security
Council refl ects the world of 1950 more than the world of
today. Others express concern about power being vested in
an organization that is not directly responsible to voters and
that provides little room for non-state interests. Still oth-
ers criticize the fact that states like Iran, Cuba, and North
Korea sit on the organization's Human Rights Council. For
all its weaknesses, however, the United Nations represents
the only truly international forum for addressing many sig-
nifi cant problems confronting the globe.
Regional Supranational Organizations
The League of Nations and the United Nations are global
manifestations of a phenomenon that is expressed even
more strongly at the regional level. States organize supra-
national organizations at the regional scale to position
themselves more strongly economically, politically, and
even militarily.
Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg under-
took the fi rst major modern experiment in regional eco-
nomic cooperation. The three countries have much in
common culturally and economically. Dutch farm prod-
ucts are sold on Belgian markets, and Belgian industrial
goods go to the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Dur-
ing World War II, representatives of the three countries
decided to create common tariffs and eliminate import
licenses and quotas. In 1944, even before the end of the
war, the governments of the three states met in London
to sign an agreement of cooperation, creating the
Benelux
(
Be
lgium, the
Ne
therlands, and
Lux
embourg) region.
Following World War II, U.S. Secretary of State
George Marshall proposed that the United States fi nance
a European recovery program. A committee representing
16 Western European states plus (then) West Germany
presented the United States Congress with a joint pro-
gram for economic rehabilitation, and Congress approved
it. From 1948 to 1952, the United States gave Europe
about $12 billion under the Marshall Plan, the largest
foreign aid program in history. This investment revived
European national economies and spurred a movement
toward cooperation among European states.
