The resumption of serious negotiations looking toward comprehensive disarmament indicates the acute discomfort felt at the top levels of government over continuing to gamble for security through the build-up of modern weapons systems. Responsible leaders of the major powers evidently share the concern voiced by President Eisenhower over “the enormous risks entailed if reasonable steps are not taken to curb the international competition in armaments and to move effectively in the direction of disarmament.” As things now stand, the risks of controlled disarmament may actually be far less than the risks of policies of deterrence which depend on a continuing expansion and ever broader dispersal of cosmic lethal power.

In his concluding volume in the Carnegie Endowment's series of National Studies on International Organization, Professor Maclver observes that the International Court of Justice, as set up in 1945, was not so much a new institution as a new promise. It was closely modelled on its predecessor, the Permanent Court of International Justice, and Article 92 of the UN Charter expressly recognized the continuity with the past in affirming that the Statute of the new Court was based upon chat of the old one. The promise lay in the fact that the new Court was declared to be “the principal judicial organ of the United Nations” and thus called upon to play a more significant role than the old Court, which had never been an organic part of the League of Nations structure. Professor Maclver concludes, however, that the promise remains in important respects unfulfilled.

For almost a decade commentators on international organization have nurtured the myth that the UN Charter was originally ‘oversold’ to the American public by enthusiastic supporters, who represented the organization as a panacea for the ills of twentieth-century world politics. So unrealistic were the expectations created by this publicity barrage, so the story runs, that subsequent disillusionment with die UN was inevitable. Although propagated with many variations, the myth finds a classic formulation in the words of Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., uttered before the House Subcommittee on International Organizations and Movements, July 8, 1953: ‘The United Nations,’ said Ambassador Lodge, ‘was oversold. It was advertised entirely as an automatic peace producer. All we had to do was sign on die dotted line—so it was said—and all our troubles would be over’. A recent volume on international relations, currently in use as a college text, restated the myth in a some what less extreme form: ‘Considered a towering edifice of strength in 1945, the United Nations was often shrugged off in the early 1950's with the damning phrase, ‘debating society.’ Because expectations had been so extravagant, the achievements of the United Nations seemed ridiculously trivial to many who had expected a Utopian revolution in international relations that the United Nations could not hope to provide.” Other variations on the theme are no doubt familiar to students of international organization. Use of the expression ‘myth’ implies no denial that ‘a veritable wave of propaganda and influence was generated on behalf of American membership’ in the UN. The country was flooded with information, from bodi government and private sources, designed to win over the public to the desirability of postwar international organization. It is also true that those engaged in selling the UN to the public tried to give their arguments an optimistic, hopeful tone. Recalling the League's fate, they emphasized the differences between the League and the proposed new organization rather than their patent similarities. Often they were guilty of oversimplifying the facts of world politics upon which the future of the UN would necessarily depend. The growing split between Russia and the Western allies, so ominous for the new organization, was not usually highlighted in speeches urging the establishment of the UN. A vigorous selling campaign was unquestionably conducted.

Much popular and scholarly writing abounds with references to blocs in the UN General Assembly, but there has been little systematic study of the actual patterns of group alignment in that body. This state of affairs may have resulted from the difficulties inherent in applying to international organization the methods used to analyze domestic legislative behavior. However, social scientists have recently developed some new techniques which may help to simplify this task and allow us to use quantitative procedures to study voting behavior in the General Assembly. This article will attempt to point out the difficulties encountered in analyzing bloc voting, and to indicate possible solutions, based on the use of quantitative techniques.

Report to the General Assembly: The third report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the UN General Assembly covered the period from July 1, 1958, to June 30, I959. The report noted that the period under consideration had been characterized by the fact that member states had begun to make substantial requests to the Agency for assistance, which the Agency had in fact been able to furnish. Furthermore, the Agency had begun to carry out its regulatory tasks, organize its first meetings, conferences, and symposia, enter upon its own research, and greatly expand the collection and publication of technical information. Whereas on June 30, 1958, membership of IAEA had stood at 66, one year later it stood at 70, Iran, Iraq, the Philippines, and the Sudan having in the meantime deposited instruments of ratification of the Statute. In the broadest terms, according to the report, the production of radioisotopes and their use in industry, agriculture, medicine, and research, and the eventual production of economic nuclear power, under safe and secure conditions, continued to be the main objectives of most of the Agency's work. For the attainment of these aims IAEA had been employing a variety of means, including technical assistance, the diffusion of information, the formulation of regulations and recommendations, the supply of nuclear fuels, the promotion of research reactor development, the elaboration of safeguards, the organization of training courses, and the award of fellowships and research contracts. A notable development was cited as being the completion of the Agency's first supply operation, three tons of natural uranium in metallic form having been supplied to Japan.

The resumed 28th session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) was held in New York on December 14 and 15, 1959, under the presidency of Mr. Cosio Villegas (Mexico). Much of the business of the 1090th meeting dealt with elections, with the following results: 1) Canada, Japan, and the Soviet Union were elected members of the Governing Council of the Special Fund representing the economically developed countries; 2) Yugoslavia, Pakistan, and Thailand were elected members of the Governing Council representing the less developed countries; 3) Sweden was elected to the seat on the Governing Council left vacant by Denmark, for the remainder of Denmark's term (one year); 4) Haiti, Israel, and Norway were elected members of the Technical Assistance Committee, for a period of two years beginning on January 1, 1960; 5) China, Costa Rica, France, New Zealand, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States were elected to the Council Committee on Nongovernmental Organizations for 1960; and 6) Mr. Mohamed Abu Rannat (Sudan) and Mr. Enrique Rodriguez Fabregat (Uruguay) were elected members of the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, thereby increasing the number of members of the subcommission to fourteen.

The Trusteeship Council held its tenth special session at UN Headquarters on December 4 and 16, 1959. Following the adoption of its agenda, the Council entered into consideration of the report of the UN Plebiscite Commissioner on the plebiscite in the northern part of the trust territory of the Cameroons under United Kingdom administration. In introducing the first part of the report, Mr. Abdoh, UN Plebiscite Commissioner, reviewed the history of his consultations with the United Kingdom government on arrangements for the organization of the plebiscite. He observed that, as a result of being administered for many years as an integral part of the northern region of Nigeria, the Northern Cameroons had previously had very little reality as a separate administrative entity; in fact, boundaries with the northern region of Nigeria had little significance, and tribal groups extended from that region into the trust territory and even beyond, to the Cameroons under French administration. Communications in the Northern Cameroons were poor, but, despite adverse conditions, the UN plebiscite staff had travelled extensively and had been able to meet both the people and their leaders. Mr. Abdoh added that he wished to stress the peaceful and orderly way in which polling had been conducted throughout the territory, and mentioned the results of the plebiscite, viz.: out of the 113,859 votes cast, 70,546 hadbeen in favor of deciding the future of the Cameroons at a later date (alternative b), while 42,788 had indicated a preference for the Northern Cameroons' becoming a part of the northern region of Nigeria when Nigeria became independent (alternative a); 525 votes had been rejected. Approximately 80 percent of the estimated number of potential electors, and nearly 88 percent of the voters actually registered, had participated in the balloting; thus the greater part of the eligible population had taken part in the consultation, freely expressing their wishes in regard to the alternatives offered in the plebiscite. Mr. Abdoh had, however, felt it his duty to inform the Council of the view, which seemed to be prevalent among those who had voted for the second alternative, that the plebiscite had offered the people an opportunity of registering what was in effect a protest against the system of local adminstration, the introduction of reforms into which was apparently long overdue.

Case concerning the Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia v. Thailand): According to an order of December 5, 1959, the International Court of Justice in the case of the Temple of Preah Vihear fixed January 20, i960, as the time limit for filing the memorial of Cambodia, and May 23, 1960, for filing the counter-memorial of Thailand.

The fourteenth annual report of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, covering the fiscal year July 1, 1958, to June 30, 1959, was presented to the Board of Governors on September 28, 1959. The report noted that the year under review had been one of considerable adversity for many of the Bank's member countries, with foreign exchange difficulties having been the rule rather than the exception for the less developed nations. Nevertheless, although export earnings had declined, the inflow of both public and private capital from the developed areas had been well maintained. The Bank's lending for the period under review had continued at the high level reached in the previous fiscal year, as it had made 30 loans totaling $703 million. Half of the year's lending activities had been concentrated in Asia, amounting to $354 million, while the balance had been made up of $136.5 million for Latin America, $110.6 million for Africa, and $102 million for Europe. As in previous years, lending operations had emphasized the strengthening of basic services, with electric power development representing the largest objective and accounting for $294 million of the total. Transportation improvement, mainly in railways, had accounted for $257.2 million; loans for industry, largely steel, paper, and mining, had totaled $149 million; and loans for agricultural development had amounted to $3.5 million.

The 143d session of the Governing Body of the International Labor Organization (ILO) was held in Geneva from November 17 to November 20, 1959. As had been decided at its 141st session (March 1959), the Governing Body was given an opportunity at the outset to review the major emphases and trends of ILO's activities and methods of work. This was undertaken as an experiment which the Governing Body could repeat if it deemed it necessary or beneficial. Opening the debate, the United States representative pointed out that ILO's objective of improving the condition of the underdeveloped countries had generally been regarded as most important and that much still remained to be done in that field. He cautioned against the dissipation of efforts on secondary matters, as funds for operational activities were limited and the setting of priorities was therefore imperative. In his opinion, some of the industrial committees had been running out of useful work; he thus suggested substituting for them ad hoc meetings designed to cope with specific regional problems. He also criticized various joint projects ILO had undertaken with other specialized agencies as well as the drafting of rigid instruments which, in his opinion, occupied too much of the Organization's time. In the ensuing discussion, all representatives agreed on the importance and necessity of ILO's operational activities, particularly technical assistance. Several speakers suggested that technical assistance should not be confined to industry but should also be given to agriculture. The representative of West Germany, for one, expressed the view that the Organization should intensify its work in the field of employment and labor-management relations, while the Indian spokesman favored workers’ education programs and vocational training, as well as a long term project for raising living standards in rural areas.

It was announced on November 19, 1959, that France had purchased $200 million from the International Monetary Fund, thereby reducing the Fund's holdings of French francs to 98 percent of the French quota. A one-year$100 million stand-by arrangement between the government of Argentina and the Fund was announced on December 1, 1959; this was to enable the Argentine government to carry forward its program of economic stabilization, which was to be supplemented by additional credits from other quarters. Specifically, the arrangement was to provide for general payment support and help maintain an orderly foreign exchange system; it brought Argentina's outstanding drawings from the Fund to $117.5 million. On December 21, 1959, the Fund announced a stand-by arrangement with the Dominican Republic, which authorized it to draw up to $11,250,000 during the following twelve months, thereby enabling the government to undertake a stabilization program needed to offset the declining export earnings affecting the Dominican Republic. Lasdy, on March 1, 1960, the government of Peru entered into a one-year stand-by arrangement with the Fund for an amount of $27.5 million in support of its efforts to achieve economic and financial stability and to counteract the inflationary pressures the country had been experiencing.

At the conclusion of the two International Telecommunication Union (ITU) conferences held in Geneva in 1959—the Plenipotentiary (October 14 to December 16) and the Administrative Radio (August 17 to December 17)—two international documents were officially signed by the representatives of 85 and 84 countries respectively, namely: 1) the new Convention, replacing the International Telecommunication Convention of Buenos Aires, 1952; and 2) the new Radio Regulations, replacing those of Atlantic City, 1947. The Convention was to take effect on January 1, 1961, and the Radio Regulations on May i, 1961. Some additional protocols had to be signed as well, so that certain decisions (for example, the elections of the newly-constituted Administrative Council, the Secretary-General, and the Deputy Secretary-General, and changes made in the budget system) could take effect forthwith. Numerous recommendations and resolutions were also adopted, and decisions concerning the way ITU was organized, how it was run, and its future development were reached by the Plenipotentiary Conference, the chairman of which was Mr. J. D. H. van der Toorn, head of the Netherlands delegation. The chairman of the Radio Conference was Mr. Charles J. Acton, head of the Canadian delegation.

The Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) held its 55th session in Paris, from November 23, 1959, to December 5, 1959. Under the heading, Execution of the Program, the Board decided, inter alia: 1) to approve the list of invitations to the 23d International Conference on Public Education; 2) to authorize the Director-General to convene, in 1960, a meeting of representatives to the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, if hedeemed it appropriate to do so; 3) to invite member states to submit names of great personalities and to call attention to historic events in the field of education, science, and culture which they planned to commemorate, in conformity with a decision adopted at its previous session; 4) to extend assistance to the governments of the United Arab Republic and the Sudan to obtain, through the Organization, largescale international assistance for safeguarding the monuments of Nubia which were in danger of disappearing, and, further, to authorize the Secretary-General, among other things, to set up an international committee to assist him in the organization of a world-wide campaign designed to secure contributions for whatever international action was to be undertaken; 5) to approve the list of invitations to the 1960 World Conference on Adult Education; and 6) to recommend to the General Conference the inclusion among the activities to be carried out in the 1961–1962 period of an international conference to study ways of improving international transmission of news, to be convened in Havana, Cuba.

The third World Meteorological Congress opened in Geneva on April i, 1959, under the presidency of Mr. Andre Viaut. Delegates from nearly 90 member states, two non-member countries, and several other international organizations were joined by a number of distinguished guests. Following several welcoming speeches, Mr. Viaut, in his presidential address, referred to the accession of the 100th member of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which had taken place just before the opening of the Congress, and to the ever-increasing world-wide cooperation which had made possible such a vast project as the meteorological program of the International Geophysical Year (IGY).

The Council of the ANZUS Pacific Security Pact met in Washington on October 26, 1959. New Zealand was represented by Prime Minister Walter Nash; Australia by Minister for External Affairs Richard G. Casey; and the United States by Secretary of State Christian Herter. The representatives of the three member nations voiced their concern that the destructive violence in Asia of the Chinese Communists and their threat of a “liberating” war in the Taiwan Strait should continue to pose a serious threat to the peace of the world; they reiterated their conviction in this context that any resort to force of arms by the Chinese Communists in the Taiwan area or elsewhere could only be regarded as an international problem affecting the stability of the region.

The agenda of the Arab League Council meeting in Cairo during the last three weeks of February i960 reportedly centered around consideration of “the whole Palestine case in all its aspects,” comprising such problems as organization of the Palestinian people, formation of a Palestine defense army, use of the waters of the Jordan River for irrigation purposes, representation of the Palestine people by a legitimate body to speak in their name, and proposals for reactivization of the UN Arab-Israeli conciliation commission.’ The agenda also included discussion of the Algerian question, with representatives of the self-proclaimed Algerian provisional government expected to ask the League to support proposals put forward by the recent All African Peoples' Conference in Tunis for the organization of a force of Arab-African volunteers to help the Algerian nationalists. The first debate of the meeting was said to have occurred over the absence of two League members, Iraq and Tunisia, the leaders of which were at odds with President Nasser of the United Arab Republic. Cablegrams stressing the importance of their participation in the Cairo discussions were dispatched to the two countries at the suggestion of the foreign minister of Jordan.

The third part of the eleventh ordinary session of the Consultative Assembly was opened on January 18, 1960, with a tribute to its President, Mr. John Edward, who had died at Strasbourg on November 23, 1959. At the onset, the Assembly unanimously adopted a motion against anti Semitic outbreaks presented by the Political Committee, which a delegation from the Israeli parliament gratefully acknowledged. A motion to adjourn the election of the President until the opening of the next session was also adopted. Following presentation of a report on the activities of the Bureau and Standing Committee, the second supplementary report to the tenth report of the Committee of Ministers was presented by its chairman, Mr. Pierre Wigny, Belgian Foreign Minister. He noted that the Assembly had been disturbed over the fact that the Council of Europe was no longer fulfilling an adequate role, and stressed the importance of the exchanges of views which the Committee of Ministers had decided could take place at the request of any member state. In the economic sphere he called attention to recent moves toward economic coordination, and, before concluding, asked the Assembly to examine further both the question of Eurafrican relations and that of rationalization of European institutions.

Meeting from September 22 to 25, 1959, the European Parliamentary Assembly discussed the principles and problems involved in the establishment of a multilateral European trading association. Opening the debate, Mr. M. P. A. Blaisse (Dutch Popular Catholic) stated that experience had shown that the common market could be considered the driving force of European economic integration. Although at present involving only a part of Europe, it could expand and develop in several ways—by the accession of new members, by the creation of a multilateral association, or by the conclusion of bilateral agreements. Whatever the form of its evolution, the obligations undertaken by member states within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) could not be ignored; similarly, it was imperative to take into account the interests of the United States and Canada. Thus he suggested that special agreements could be concluded with these two countries, to minimize the effects of trade discrimination, along with continued negotiations with members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). He warned against compromise on the final aim, namely, the establishment of a multilateral association. The President of the European Economic Commission, Mr. W. Hallstein, thereupon presented the Commission's recommendations for a trade program on which the six nations could agree. He stated that such a program had to be pragmatic and realistic, and fulfill several conditions: improvement of economic conditions of the nations both inside and outside the European Economic Community (EEC), taking into account Europe's relations with the rest of the world, in particular with the United States; strengthening of the feelings of solidarity between the Community and all those affected by its external commercial policy; and general improvement of trade relations. He urged that care be taken to avoid giving the impression that EEC practiced a policy of discrimination and asked therefore that every effort be made to prove that its aim was the liberalization of trade throughout the world. Specifically, after the next GATT conference, EEC should, in his opinion, forthwith give its agreement to further tariff reductions and, in addition, promote the granting of aid to underdeveloped countries. At the European level, he proposed the creation of a “contact committee, comprised of representatives of the Community and other countries or groups to study the question of the development of external commercial relations. Mr. Hallstein concluded by pointing out that the proposals of his Commission were neither complete nor final. The speakers that followed agreed, on the whole, with the above-mentioned suggestions, but no resolution was adopted and it was decided to re-examine the whole matter at future sessions.

A short meeting of the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), devoted exclusively to East-West relations, was held on September 4, 1959, following a visit by United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower. United States Secretary of State Christian Herter, opening the session, explained to the Council why Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had been invited to the United States and reviewed the general world situation since the Geneva Conference, including the current state of disarmament negotiations.

The January 14, 1960, meeting of the Council of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was preceded by a meeting of representatives of the organization's eighteen members and of the United States and Canada to examine the resolutions adopted by a special economic conference. At this meeting, which ended with approval of a move sponsored by the United States that was designed to reorganize economic cooperation and transform the organization, it was decided, and subsequently approved by the OEEC Council and the United States and Canada, that: 1) four experts, representing respectively North America, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the European Economic Community (EEC) and other European nations, would prepare a report on the transformation of OEEC for consideration by senior officials of twenty countries, namely, the OEEC nations and the United States and Canada, at a meeting scheduled for April 19, 1960; 2) a preparatory meeting of representatives of the same twenty nations would be held in a month's time, when decisions would be taken to appoint a permanent chairman, a secretariat, and working parties to look into outstanding trade problems; and 3) a group, consisting of Canada, France, West Germany, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, the United States, the United Kingdom, and a representative of EEC, would be informally set up to coordinate aid policies to underdeveloped countries. The outcome of the discussions was regarded as paving the way for a new Atlantic economic grouping, composed of the members of OEEC plus the United States and Canada, which would give priority to consideration of the problems between the two rival European economic groups, EEC and EFTA. Other matters discussed by the Council were the removal of discriminatory measures against imports from the dollar zone and the increase in assistance to underdeveloped countries.