Enforcement of international decisions and awards has not enjoyed universal recognition as a problem. Judgment-enforcement, it has been contended, is separable from the general question of sanctions; since submission to adjudication and arbitration in international law is voluntary, it is argued, a state will not submit a particular dispute to third-party settlement unless it has already reconciled itself to the possibility of losing the case. By logical reduction this argument must conclude that there have been no cases of noncompliance. Other writers assure compliance by pointing to the “moral force” of a decision. Given the decentralized structure of the international arena, the “horizontal” allocation of control, and the fact that international affairs hover so perilously close to crisis level, it is tempting to accept the nonexistence of an enforcement problem and thus to sidestep the necessity for formulating enforcement strategies. The wisdom of this course of action is questionable: “Leaving things well enough alone” may, arguably, not make them worse, but it will also not make them better. Organized international decision processes (which include adjudication and arbitration as well as a host of less institutionalized decision processes) counteract relative international anarchy. The efficacy of these decision processes depends upon compliance with or enforcement of their decisions.

In 1964 Secretary-General U Thant asserted that more significant progress in achieving some measures of disarmament has taken place since the summer of 1963 than in all the years since the founding of the United Nations.

The evidence cited included five achievements: 1) the coming into force in October 1963 of the Moscow Treaty, a partial test-ban treaty banning nuclear-weapons tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water to which more than 100 states had subscribed by 1965; 2) the establishment of the direct communications link between Moscow and Washington; 3) the resolution of the General Assembly to ban nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction from outer space; 4) the unilateral reductions of the military budgets of the Soviet Union and the United States; and 5) the mutual cutbacks in production of fissionable material for military purposes by these two countries and the United Kingdom.

The 1963 UN Pledging Conference on the Expanded Program of Technical Assistance (EPTA) and the Special Fund was held at UN Headquarters on October 15, 1963, under the presidency of D. O. Hay (Australia). Opening the Conference, Secretary-General U Thant stressed the achievements of EPTA and the Special Fund in the past twelve years. However, he said, powerful social pressures generated by the desire of increasing populations for decent living standards had also grown. Both programs therefore had to be further strengthened if they were to help the emerging nations raise the living levels of their peoples and their capacity for growth.

Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East: The nineteenth session of the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) was held in Manila on March 5–18, 1964, under the chairmanship of Mr. Rufino G. Hechanova (Philippines).

The General Assembly resumed the work of its nineteenth session on September 1, 1965, at UN Headquarters in New York. The 1286th-1330th plenary meetings comprised the previous part of the session which had convened on December 1, 1964, and adjourned on February 18, 1965.

The United Nations two decades after San Francisco is a very different body from the one which its creators fashioned, and it is a reasonable presumption that there were none or virtually none who presided over its creation who foresaw even dimly what it would become in the short span of twenty years. In particular, few could have believed at that time that the tidal wave of anticolonialism would sweep so drastically over the domains of the imperial powers and leave behind in its wake an organization so largely populated by the new Asian and African states which emerged from the deluge. It is also one of the significant elements in the situation that few could have imagined that the process of decolonization could be carried through with so little needed in the way of violent struggle by the colonial peoples and so much conceded in peaceful acquiescence by their colonial masters. One of the world's great revolutions has been accomplished with a minimum of revolutionary action and sacrifice.

In the Introduction to the Annual Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization, 16 June 1963–15 June 1964 Secretary-General U Thant observed that the publication of the Introduction had been delayed because of the postponement of the nineteenth session of the General Assembly until December 1, 1964. Taking advantage of this delay, he had brought the Introduction up to date.

During its 1180th meeting held on December 18, 1964, the Security Council had before it the report by the Secretary-General on the UN peacekeeping operation in Cyprus for the period September 10–December 12, 1964. The object of the meeting was to determine, on the basis of the report, whether or not it was desirable to extend the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) beyond its expected date of expiration on December 25, 1964. At the President's invitation, Spyros Kyprianou, Foreign Minister of Cyprus; Orhan Eralp (Turkey); and Dimitri S. Bitsios (Greece) took places at the Security Council table.

The Security Council convened on November 16, 1964, at the request of Syria and Israel to consider the outbreak of hostilities the border between the two countries on November 13. The Council devoted its 1162nd, 1164th-! 169th, 1179th, and 1182nd meetings, held on November 16, November 27-December 8, December 17, and December 21, 1964, respectively, to the discussion of this question. The Council also had before it a letter of November 14, 1964, from the representative of Israel describing the border clash.2 At the invitation of the President, Michael S. Comay (Israel) and Rafik Asha (Syria) took places at the Council table to participate without vote in the Council's deliberations.

Some writing about the UN may suggest that there are those who conceive of the elephant that is the United Nations largely in terms of its human rights programs. The allusion to the fabled task of the blind men is not intended to impugn the vision of those who concentrate on that significant United Nations activity. The United Nations is a multifaceted and incongruous body, and the broadest view would not permit seeing it whole and in detail at the same time. Aware of the inevitable distortion that concentration brings, I would on this occasion look at this particular limb, hoping not to lose sight of the fact that it is part of a living if strange beast in a real world.

The twelfth session of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Conference was held in Rome from November 16 to December 5, 1963, under the chairmanship of Mr. E. Shiroshi Nasu (Japan). During its session the Conference adopted 57 resolutions covering major trends and policy questions in food and agriculture, activities and programs of the Organization, the budget for 1964–1965, constitutional and legal matters, and administrative and financial matters.

Convening its second extraordinary session, the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) met in London on September 10–15, 1964, under the chairmanship of Dr. Nagendra Singh (India).

A Point of departure for considering the evolution of t!he judicial function in the United Nations system can be found in three interrelated decisions of principle incorporated in the UN Charter itself, of which the Statute of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) forms an integral part.

The 37th session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), comprising the 1314th-1351st meetings, was held in Geneva from July 13, 1964, to August 15, 1964. At the 1314th meeting Sir Ronald Walker (Australia) was elected President of the Council; Mr. Matsui (Japan) was elected First Vice President; and Mr. Chanderli (Algeria) was elected Second Vice President.

Legal controversy within the United Nations has resulted from the confrontation of the Organization's purposes with the specific rules set forth in the Charter for their implementation. Two sections of the Charter stand out as having produced yet unresolved legal tangles: One is the provision relating to the maintenance of international peace and security through effective collective action; the other is the group of provisions relating to self-determination and human rights. The Cold War and the attempts of the Great Powers to use the UN to attain or defend their policy objectives have shaped the attitude of Members toward the law and the role of law in the more clearly political activities of the UN. Consequently, politico-legal controversy has arisen with respect to the allocation of competences and powers between the General Assembly and the Security Council, the manner of operation of these two bodies, and the distribution of responsibility for “enforcement action’ between the UN and regional organizations.

The annual report of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), covering the fiscal year July 1, 1963, to June 30, 1964, was presented to the Boards of Governors of the Bank and IDA on September 7, 1964.

The report of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the ninth General Conference of the Agency covered the period from July 1, 1964, to June 30, 1965. During the period under review, membership of the Agency increased from 87 to 92. The new members were Cameroun, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Kuwait, and Madagascar. The main event during the period had been the Third International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy (Third Geneva Conference), which had provided a full evaluation of the experience gained since 1958 in designing, building, and operating nuclear power plants as well as of future prospects for nuclear power being introduced in an increasing number of countries. Ten specialized agencies, 75 states, and the Agency had been represented. The Conference focused its attention on nuclear power, the rapid rise of which as a major source of energy promised to be of decisive importance to the economic development of the world.