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296 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. vii (1954)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0296 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD This volume of THE ANNALS is concerned with the future direction of United Nations development and in particular with the basic issues which must be con- fronted as the time approaches for a comprehensive reappraisal of the Charter. Although the question of subjecting the Charter of the United Nations to formal review will not be decided until the General Assembly holds its tenth session in the autumn of 1955, intensive study and discussion are already under way by the ma- jor governments concerned, by the Secretariat, and by private organizations and scholars. Vigorous debate in the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly dur- ing the fall of 1953 preceded adoption of a resolution instructing the Secretary- General to compile the full documentation of the San Francisco Conference and to prepare a repertory of the practices of United Nations organs. A special sub- committee of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has been examining the problems connected with a review of the Charter and assessing the attitudes of the American public toward possible revisions. In France, a special commission has been appointed to conduct a similar study. Active policy prepa- ration is also under way, of course, in the executive departments of most of the Member States. Among private efforts, the Brookings Institution is undertaking a most thorough study of the Charter's evolution and implementation. The bold- est proposal for actual revision of the Charter is a detailed redraft advanced by Mr. Grenville Clark and Professor Louis Sohn which would transform the United Nations into a supranational authority. As compared with these essentially technical studies, the present volume focuses attention on some of the broad problems of policy which lie behind the review of specific Charter provisions and shows the principal lines of approach being taken towards them by responsible statesmen and scholars. What is the proper scope of United Nations functions? By what yardsticks does-or should-the United Na- tions determine its actions? How inclusive should the United Nations community become and what are the most appropriate procedures for reaching decisions within such an organization? How can it be adapted to implement the control of arms under conditions of atomic technology? What are the necessary conditions of an effective Secretariat? The articles and comments which follow, as they come to grips with these questions, evaluate the probable effects of Charter revision upon the future potentialities of the United Nations in its manifold tasks. In the first part, Re-evaluating the Scope of United Nations Functions, the question is directly faced as to the Organization's intrinsic capacity to fulfill the tasks to which it has been committed. Two of the authors urge that the present provisions of the Charter can be so sharpened as to strengthen substantially the authority of the Organization, especially as an instrument for the maintenance of security and as a guarantor of the rights of non-self-governing peoples. Two others conclude, however, that the effectiveness of the U.N. in the settlement of disputes and in the promotion of respect for human rights does not demand changes in the Charter, but depends rather on improving the climate of international rela- tions and fully utilizing the possibilities for action within the present framework of the Organization. A third approach is skeptical as to the potential value of the vii

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