Economic Commission for Africa: The seventh session of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) was held in Nairobi, Kenya, on February 9–23, 1965. The Commission welcomed Malawi and Zambia as full members of ECA and also recognized Tanzania as a member with a single identity, replacing the two members, Tanganyika and Zanzibar, which had formed a political union.

The second UN Conference on the Law of the Sea, convened in accordance with a resolution1 of the General Assembly, was opened in Geneva on March 16, 1960, under the presidency of Prince Wan Waitha yakon (Thailand), and closed on April 27. Representatives of 88 countries attended. Two questions only were before the Conference: 1) the breadth of the territorial sea; and 2) the breadth of fishery limits. These had been left unsolved by the first Conference, held early in 1958.

The third emergency special session of the General Assembly, summoned by the Secretary-Generall in accordance with a resolution adopted by the Security Council at its 838th meeting on August 7, 1958, 2 was held from August 8 through August 21, 1958 (732d–746th plenary meetings). Following the adoption of the provisional agenda,3 the Soviet delegate, Mr. Sobolev, opened the discussion, urging that the General Assembly take steps to ensure the immediate withdrawal of the United States troops from Lebanon and the United Kingdomforces from Jordan because their presence constituted a permanent threat to the peace and security of the peoples and was a violation of the UN Charter. Mr. Lodge (United States) replied to Mr. Sobolev's statement, saying that the Soviet Union, in calling for a special General Assembly session, sought to attack the United States, but that this was not the purpose of the Security Council in voting for the United States resolution under which the session of the General Assembly was being held. The aim of the United States in introducing its resolution was to promote a chance for constructive action on the Middle East.

The thirteenth conference of Commonwealth Prime Ministers to be held since the war took place in London on July 8–15, 1964, with the participation of all eighteen independent nations of the British Commonwealth.1 When the conference opened on July 8 under the chairmanship of Sir Alec Douglas-Home (United Kingdom), agreement was reached on an agenda in the following order: 1) a review of the world political situation; 2) the progress of British territories toward independence and membership in the Commonwealth; and 3) means of promoting closer cooperation between the peoples of the Commonwealth; and world economic affairs.

South West Africa Cases (Ethiopia v. Union of South Africa and Liberia v. Union of South Africa): On November 4, 1960, applications were filed in the Registry of the Court by Ethiopia and Liberia, instituting separate proceedings against the Union of South Africa. Both applications concerned the mandate for South West Africa and the duties and performance of the Union, as mandatory, thereunder. The applicants alleged that the Union, acting through official bodies created by it to administer the territory, had violated, and was continuing to violate, Article 2 of the mandate and Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations by: 1) arbitrary and unreasonable legislation; 2) the suppression of rights and liberties essential to the orderly evolution of the inhabitants toward self-government; 3) the failure to render annual reports concerning the territory to the General Assembly of the UN; and 4) the exercise of administrative and legislative powers inconsistent with the international status of the territory. The applications contended that the Union of South Africa had thereby modified substantially the terms of the mandate without the consent of the UN, and sought declarations by the Court in accordance with their allegations.

The United States public and government, initially unrealistic in their visions of UN potentialities, have recently been turning toward the extreme of skepticism. There are various reasons for the change: the squabbles over Chinese representation and Rhodesian sanctions, the ever–increasing budgets voted by small powers who apparently pay a disproportionately low share of UN expenses, United States disillusionment at being out–voted by the Afro–Asian bloc, and the latter's insistence that the only really important function of the UN is to end colonialism and racism. Although some of these frictions have been adjusted, others are in danger of flaring into major disagreements, and, in any case, the old easy assumption of permanent US–UN friendship has gone by the board.

The 34th session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), comprising the 1209th–1236th meetings, was held in Geneva from July 3 to August 3, 1962, under the presidency of Mr. Jerzy Michalowski (Poland).

The tenth session of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Executive Committee was held in Geneva from April 29 to May 17, 1958. The Committee considered the recommendations arising from the second session of the Commission for Bibliography and Publications; the comments received on the draft International Meteorological Vocabulary were noted. The recommendations resulting from the second session of the Commission for Synoptic Meteorology, which dealt with international meteorological codes, were approved and incorporated in a single Executive Committee resolution. The Committee also considered the decisions taken at the second session of Regional Association V (South-West Pacific). The new president of this association announced that it was proposed to set up a tropical analysis center in Australia and this development was welcomed by the Committee.

Despite populist backlash against globalization in advanced industrialized countries, developing countries have recently sought to liberalize trade. To shed light on this phenomenon, we investigate mass attitudes toward free trade in thirty-six African countries. Using two rounds of Afrobarometer data and original survey data from Ghana and Uganda, we find that individuals hold views that are consistent with their economic self-interest. As factor endowment models predict for a sample of skill-scarce countries, low-skilled individuals are more likely than high-skilled individuals to support free trade. Moreover, the strongest negative effects of skill occur for the most skill-scarce countries in the sample and are driven by individuals in the labor force. Our results are robust to measuring variables more precisely in original surveys and controlling for other factors thought to shape attitudes. The findings indicate that previous evidence against factor endowment models may have partially resulted from inadequate data from the developing world.

The twenty-eighth annual report of the Bank for International Settlements covering the financial year from April I, 1957, to March 31, 1958, was submitted to the annual general meeting of the Bank held at Basle on June 9, 1958. Details of the results of the year's business operations were given, together with a review of the current activities of the Bank and an analysis of the balance sheet as of March 31, 1958. The year was characterized by a stabilization of the resources at the disposal of the Bank at the high level reached the previous year and by a further increase in the volume of its operations. The financial year closed with a surplus of 19,317,738 gold francs, against 16,014,462 gold francs for the previous year; the net profit amounted to 9,317,738 gold francs, compared with 8,212,987 for the preceding year. The board of directors of the Bank recommended that the general meeting should declare a dividend of 6 percent.

Two new experiments in international cooperation, seldom publicized and very little known even to the specialist in international affairs, have been taking place in recent years in the Caribbean area and in the South Pacific. In each instance, colonial nations have established international organizations, advisory in character, to foster economic and social advance. Without political functions, these two organizations — the Caribbean Commission and the South Pacific Commission — have embarked on the task of raising standards of living and advancing the general welfare of the non-self-governing peoples of the area. The first of these, the Caribbean Commission, was the progenitor of the regional system and has served in large measure as a model for the later South Pacific Commission; the story of its development, with the participation first of two and later of four colonial governments, is therefore particularly interesting to follow.

The Trusteeship Council held its twentyfirst session at UN headquarters from January 20 to March 28, 1958, under the presidency of Mr. Emilio Arenales Catalan (Guatemala). The provisional agenda, adopted by the Council, included the examination of the annual reports on the administration of Ruanda-Urundi, the Cameroons under British administration, the Cameroons under French administration, and Tanganyika and also petitions relating to trust territories, questions referred to the Council by the General Assembly, and other matters.

The eighteenth session of the contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was held in Geneva from May 14 to 19, 1961, under the chairmanship of Mr. W. P. H. van Oorschot of the Netherlands. It was announced at the session that the first phase of the 1960–61 Tariff Conference, which was largely concerned with negotiations with the European Economic Community (EEC), had been terminated and that the general round of tariff negotiations would open on May 29, 1961. The Tariffs Negotiations Committee was scheduled to meet that same day and reconstitute itself in order to meet the new circumstances and to make the necessary arrangements for the general negotiations.

The 1962 annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Bank, held in conjunction with the annual meetings of the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), took place in Washington, D.C. on September 17–21, 1962, under the chairmanship of Mr.Ahmed Zaki Saad, Governor for Saudi Arabia. In the annual address, Mr. Eugene R. Black, President of the International Bank, summarized some of the achievements of the Bank and its affiliates in the past year. He also commented on the external economic difficulties facing the developing countries and pointed out some of the implications of these difficulties as they affected the amount and kind of aid the developing countries needed.

The United Nations Advisory Committee on the Application of Science and Technology to Development has said:

The considered view of the Committee is that, in present circumstances, the wider and more intensive application of existing knowledge, suitably adapted to local conditions, provides the best prospect of securing rapid advancement in the developing countries.

The Security Council at its 1027th to 1033rd meetings, April 17–24, 1963, considered this question, which was brought to the attention of the Council in a letter dated April 10, 1963, from the Chargé d'Affaires of the permanent mission of Senegal, addressed to the President of the Security Council. The government of Senegal called upon the Security Council to discuss the violations of Senegalese air space and territory on the border between Senegal and Portuguese Guinea. The letter cited the violation of air space by four Portuguese aircraft, the dropping of grenades on the village of Bouniack on April 9, 1963, and three similar violations of territory and air space which occurred on December 16, 1961, and which were drawn to the attention of the President of the Security Council on December 22, 1961.

Case concerning the Northern Cameroons (Cameroun v. United Kingdom): By an order of November 27, 1962, the International Court of Justice extended to March 1, 1963, the time limit for the filing of the observations and submissions of Cameroun on the preliminary objection raised by the United Kingdom in the Northern Cameroons case. By an order of January 11, 1963, the President of the Court extended to July 1, 1963, the time limit for the filing by the government of Cameroun of its observations and submissions on the preliminary objection raised by the United Kingdom in the Northern Cameroons case. The extensions were at the request of the government of Cameroun with the agreement of the United Kingdom government.