Volume 16, numéro 3, 1985

EN :

The article outlines broad directions for the elaboration of a model that could be used to demonstrate the specificity of Third World international organizations. The first section deals with the specific nature of these organizations' environment. The article then define the mechanisms which are at the basis of their development. The recognition of the specific nature of Third World international organizations leads to the conclusion that political factors play an essential role in the birth, operation and sometimes failure of these organizations. In the Third World, international organizations are essentially a political phenomenon, combining powers which, because of the existence of few or none real functional needs, can hardly go beyond their immediate interests to work toward the strengthening of structures of international cooperation, which effects can only be felt in the middle or long term.

EN :

What the United Nations brought to the International Community during its forty years of life cannot be assessed only by referring to the working of the institution and the success or failures it encountered in dealing with specific questions or crises. The profound and lasting changes in the International Community itself in which it contributed in bringing about must also be taken into consideration. Undoubtedly, the most considerable of these changes, a mutation, in the real sense of the word, was the passage from an international society centered around Europe and North-America in 1945, to a truly world society in 1985, through the process of decolonisation. The United Nations decisively contributed to the spreading of the ideology of decolonisation, to the enactment of an international law of decolonisation and to the use of multilateral diplomacy against colonial powers. Eventually, admission to the United Nations became the visible sign as well as the final step of the attainment of political independence.

Another remarkable new feature of the international society of today, closely related to the preceding one, is the importance of groups of states, like the Seventy Seven and the Non Aligned, acting as pressure groups. This new setting was made possible only with the existence of the United Nations, where "group diplomacy" was able to deploy itself and to make the "power of the number" felt.

Eventually, the whole present diplomatic game, which is played at the level of the world rather than on a bilateral or regional basis in an always growing number of fields, is a product of development of multilateral diplomacy within the United Nations. It is specially true of the so-called North-South dialogue - or confrontation.

The World Organization is now an irreversible fact of international life and a reflection of the present structure of the International Society that it helped to build up. But on the other hand, it is a very novel experiment in a historical perspective. Much is y et to be learned in order to be able to make the best use of the instruments it affords for managing the world community.

EN :

The article attempts to evaluate the balance of United Nations accomplishments in the field of peace and security since 1945. The first part deals with the elements one has to take into consideration to properly evaluate such performance. These are what the Organization ought to do (its objectives), what it could do (its means) and what it has done (the kinds of activities). In the second part, each one of these elements is examined. About the objectives, the article distinguishes between manifest and latent objectives and it argues that the first ones have not changed when the second ones have much changed. About the means, the article analyzes the powers given the UN and the way its principal organs exercise them. It traces the evolution of the roles of the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Secretary general and the International Court of Justice. Concerning the kinds of activities, the article uses a typology developed by H.K. Jacobson to argue that the main function of the UN is a "verbal" or informational one, that the normative function especially in its collective legitimization aspect is the second most important, that the rule supervisory function accounts or few activities, and, that the operational function is more developed than it may appear. The article concludes that the balance is a positive one pointing to the flexibility, the adaptability and the continued usefulness of the UN.

EN :

This article is about the role of international bureaucracies in the determination of the general policies of international organizations. In this paper it is argued that in general international organizations' Secretariats generally do wield, considerable power over the definition of the institutions' strategies, i.e. those activities, priorities and projects which taken together make up the program of the institution for a given period. Indeed, the international bureaucrats exercise tremendous control over the content of the program. This is so because international organizations have special functions in the world System. They must see to it that, certain states of affairs prevail in the world over the long run. It is, therefore, no surprise that the programs' content be more or less shielded from conjonctural fluctuations. The article then proceeds to test these hypotheses on a concrete case: the analysis of the processus through which Unesco's program goes before becoming the official policy of the organization.

EN :

By passing the usual debate on the UNESCO "crisis", this paper analyses the ideological contradictions found in the Constitutive Act of the Organisation, and goes on to examine, using the model of small group psychology, the functioning of its main institutions, particularly that of the General Conference, by focusing on the disparity between its mandate and the role which it fulfils in effect. The purpose of the rites which preside over the debates at the General Conference and the Executive Council is questioned, specially as regards the origin and nature of the rhetoric which flourishes at those levels. Finally, the author examines the institutional, political and psychological constraints which have a negative influence on the effectiveness of the Secretariat and which also contribute to the drift of the Organisation.