The Council convened for its sixth session on January 18, 1949 at ICAO headquarters in Montreal. It adopted a resolution establishing an Air Navigation Commission, which was to assume the functions of the former Air Navigation Committee. The commission was to consist of twelve members, with Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States having already appointed representatives. Annex 7 (Standards and Recommended Practices for Aircraft Nationality and Registration Marks) to the Convention of International Civil Aviation was adopted by the Council, and approval was granted to the provisional agenda of the third ICAO Assembly, scheduled to open in Montreal on June 7, 1949. Also approved by the Council was the convening in London on April 20 of a combined conference to deal with the problems of North Atlantic weather stations, joint support to Greece in respect to the development of the Ellinikon airport, and provision of essential air navigation services requested by Denmark for its Loran station in the Faeroe Islands. Approval was given to the convening on April 11 in London of a meeting of experts to consider revision of the communications network for carrying meteorological information in the North Atlantic region.

An important item of discussion during the Autumn months of 1960 among the members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) was reported to be the question of association with the European Economic Community (EEC), but the press announced in October a “lack of progress” in resolving the problems encountered. The question was said to have been included in the issues taken up at the second ministerial meeting of the Council, held in Berne, Switzerland, on October 11 and 12, 1960. Mr. Max Petitpierre, president of the Swiss Confederation, reportedly stated in an address to the Council that, even if there was little prospect of an agreement between EEC and EFTA in the immediate future, it was imperative that the two organizations work together, not only for commercial and economic reasons, but also because of the mission that Europe was called on to discharge toward the newly independent countries. Since, however, an acceptable settlement with EEC seemed impossible in the near future, the Council determined that EFTA should proceed with its own plans. In pursuance of this decision, the Ministers decided to establish a consultative committee, representative of all aspects of economic activity, including labor, to advise on all facets of the activity of the Association. Also considered at the meeting was the possibility of an additional 10 percent tariff reduction to take effect as of January 1, 1961, to keep pace with the EEC cut scheduled for that date, but the Council concluded that too little time had elapsed since the first 20 percent tariff reductions on July 1, 1960, to make any modification of the timetable feasible at this time; it resolved, nevertheless, to re-examine the question early in 1961. The Ministers noted with satisfaction that the original tariff cuts had gone into operation without difficulty, and reasserted that the object of EFTA was not the creation of an inward-looking preferential bloc—for example, no restrictions on trade with third countries had been introduced with the creation of the group. EFTA offered to all trading nations, whether producers of industrial or agricultural products, stated the Council, the opportunities of an expanding market.

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 31st annual report of the Bank for International Settlements, covering the financial year from April 1, 1960, to March 31, 1961, was submitted to the annual general meeting of the Bank held in Basle on June 12, 1961. In his introduction, the General Manager of the Bank, Mr. Guillaume Guindey, reported that the net profit for the 31St financial year had amounted to 14,974,105 gold francs, compared with 15,314,716 gold francs for the preceding year. In view of the results for the financial year 1960–61, the Board of Directors of the Bank had recommended an extraordinary distribution of 35 gold francs per share, in addition to the regular dividend of 37·50 gold francs per share; thus the total distribution for this year would amount to 72·50 gold francs, payable in Swiss francs in the amount of 103·60 Swiss francs per share.

The 40th session of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) consisted of twelve meetings held on April 27 and May 24 and between June 6 and 22, 1960. The Council examined the secretariat's draft of the preliminary study on supersonic aircraft and decided that the study should be issued on the responsibility of the ICAO Secretary-General, with suggestions made by representatives to the Council to be taken into account. The Council considered the reports of a working group on an investigation of major deficiencies in air navigation facilities and services on the main international air routes through Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Southeast Europe and the Middle East, and the Caribbean and south America. As recommended by the group, it approved for further investigation the following problems: 1) the lack of adequate flight testing of radio-navigation aids in all these areas; 2) the shortage of trained personnel in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, and 3) the lack of proper transmitting and receiving facilities in Burma. The Council further decided that the machinery for promoting the implementation of regional plans should take the form of a standing group with a permanent membership of five—the President of the Council (chairman), the President of the Air Navigation Commission, and the chairmen of the Air Transport, Joint Support, and Finance Committees—and a floating membership to be selected on an ad hoc basis by the President of the Council to act when needed after secretariat efforts had failed in the implementation of regional plans.

From January 13 to March 26, 1953, the eighteenth session of the Council of the International Civil AviationOrganization met in Montreal. Activities at this session were predominantly concerned with matters pertaining to the seventh session of the ICAO Assembly, which was scheduled to open in June in Brighton, England. It was decided that invitations to the Assembly should be extended to Japan and Libya, invitations were also approved for those international organizations which had been invited to the fourth session of the Assembly and to the Organization of American States and the Council of Europe, and supporting documentation for items on the Assembly agenda was approved. On the recommendation of the Finance Committee a total budget for the organization for the fiscal year 1954 of Canadian $3,289,606 was approved for submission to the Assembly. Assessments for 1953 were then fixed at two units each for Korea and Libya, the two newest members of the organization.

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 chiefs of state of members of the Baghdad Pact, except the United Kingdom, met November 5–8, 1956, in Teheran. Their statement issued after the meeting condemned “Israeli aggression”, called for immediate withdrawal of Israel troops from Egypt and release of Egyptian prisoners taken by Israel, and requested the United Kingdom and France to stop hostilities, withdraw their forces from Egypt, and respect Egypt's sovereignty, integrity, and independence. The statement welcomed the General Assembly resolution contemplating the establishment of an international police force. The Suez dispute, it said, should be settled through negotiations with Egypt, under the auspices of the UN, “which should, inter alia, insure free passage through the canal with full respect for Egyptian sovereignty”. It added that those present had emphasized the necessity of solving the Arab-Israel dispute and considered the UN 1947 resolution an appropriate basis for negotiating a settlement.

The General Assembly held its 21st session, comprising the 1409th–1501st plenary meetings, at UN Headquarters from September 20 to December 20, 1966, during which time it took action on 98 agenda items and adopted 115 resolutions. Part of the Assembly's proceedings were summarized in the Spring 1967 issue of International Organization and the remainder follows below.

The Council of Ministers of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) convening in Paris under the chairmanship of Mr. Macmillan (Chancellor of the Exchequer, United Kingdom) received the report of a Ministerial Working Party of OEEC on November 15, 1956 which discussed the economic situation in member countries. The report noted the prosperity in western Europe, yet stressed the threats to it due to events in the middle east and interruption of traffic in the Suez. Besides a shortage of oil, the report noted a shortage of coal. It also stressed three weak points in the economy of western Europe: 1) the slowing down of the expansion of production; 2) the rise of prices; and 3) the imbalance in intra-European payments. It explained that the increase in production had fallen off due to a shortage of available labor; the rise in prices was due to excessive demand and increasing wages. The report called for serious fiscal measures, such as an increase in taxes, a reduction of subsidies to consumption and a cutting down of public expenditures. These measures could be supplemented by governmental action designed to increase competition in the home market and to enhance the free movement of workers in order to alleviate the man-power shortage.

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 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.

On July 2, 1964, the Chairman of the Executive Board, Pierre-Paul Schweitzer, transmitted to the Board of Governors the nineteenth annual report of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Directors for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1964.

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.

On July 11, 1958, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development made a loan equivalent to $33 million to the Japan Development Bank to assist the privately owned Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. to modernize and expand the capacity of its iron and steel plants. United States, German, and Swiss banks participated in the loan, without the Bank's guarantee, for a total amount equivalent to $1,100,000. The entire project was scheduled for completion by March 1962 at an estimated cost equivalent to $83 million. The Bank's loan, which financed approximately 40 percent of this total, was for a term of 15 years and bore interest of 5⅜ percent. It was guaranteed by the government of Japan.

The 22nd session of the United Nations General Assembly was unexpectedly enlivened by a late addition to its agenda when Malta, a newcomer even by UN standards, sought to demilitarize the ocean floor “beyond the limits of present national jurisdiction” and to internationalize its “resources in the interest of mankind.” Ambassador Arvid Pardo, Malta's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, sought immediate steps to draft a treaty that

should envisage the creation of an international agency … to assume jurisdiction, as a trustee for all countries, over the sea-bed and the ocean floor, underlying the seas beyond the limits of present national jurisdiction….

In advancing his proposal, in a surprise move thought to be premature by some governments, Ambassador Pardo accelerated and intensified the consideration of national and international interests in “ocean space.” How is the last earthbound frontier to be explored and exploited? Is it to be assigned to international jurisdiction or taken over by national authorities? A disconcertingly rapid rate of technological advance emphasizes the urgency of a decision. This article will first consider the disposal of the Malta proposal by the 22nd session of the General Assembly and then attempt to consider its significance as a challenge to the development of international organization.

Colonial warfare has been a frequent and bloody feature of international relations, yet most studies of wartime civilian victimization focus on either interstate or civil wars. In this article I argue that ignoring colonial violence has distorted our understanding of state-directed violence against civilians in wartime. I introduce a new theory of colonial violence, which focuses on the distinctive strategic, normative, and institutional incentives that colonial powers have to harm civilians. To assess this theory, I introduce and analyze a new data set of 193 cases of colonial war from 1816 to 2003. Using a variety of measures of civilian harm, I find that colonial wars are especially brutal. Three-quarters of states in colonial wars targeted civilians, for example, compared to less than a third of states in interstate wars. But some colonial wars are harder on civilians than others. Colonial powers are more likely to harm civilians when their indigenous adversaries employ guerrilla tactics, when their indigenous adversaries come from a different perceived racial background, and when the colonial state relies on settlers or indigenous intermediaries to help compensate for its relative weakness. By ignoring colonial violence in world politics, we misunderstand the scale and scope of state-directed violence against civilians and miss an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the causes of this brutality.