PAST EFFORTS AT JOINDER

POLITICAL

In the period between World Wars I and II, attempts at international agreement to promote peace and harmony were undertaken, sone under League of Nations auspices, and others independently.  For example, in November of 1921, the United States invited eight nations to send representatives to Washington, DC, to discuss reduction of naval armaments.  At this meeting, Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes asked the participating countries to destroy their battleships.  This was obviously not complied with; and the arms buildup in Europe went on. 

In September, 1924, at Geneva, a draft agreement entitled a "protocol to end all wars" was presented to the League of Nations.  In October of that year, a second protocol calling for compulsory arbitration of disputes was executed by forty  seven nations. 

Four years later, sixty nations signed a pact authored by Secretary of State Frank Kellogg and French Foreign Minister Aristede Briand, declaring war illegal, and again agreeing to settle disputes peacefully.  Among its shortcomings was the fact that there existed no mechanism for enforcing this pledge; and it permitted "defensive" wars--being an easy justification or rationalization for commencing or carrying on a conflict.  In January, 1930, another international arms parley opened in London.  The following April, the London Naval Treaty, which would operate to prevent or limit a naval arms race, was signed by the five major naval powers of the day: Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States. 

In February, 1932, sixty nations met in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss arms rediuctions.  In September of the same year, a World Peace Conference convened in Vienna, attended by eighty delegates from fourteen countries.  And in 1933, meetings attended by sixty six nations convened in London, seeking ways to promote international harmony.  U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the opening of this meeting with a plea for its accomploishment via arms limitation.  Then came the Second World War--which was followed by the birth of the United Nations.  (In a short time, I'll be speaking about the losses and sorrows wrought by the tragedy that was World War II; as well as the U.N.'s accomplishments and failures thereafter.)

Following the War, nineteen Western nations met in Brazil, in 1947, to sign the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro, pledging security for the hemisphere.  On April 30th of the next year, delegates from twenty one countries signed a charter to form the Organization of American States.  It provided for common defense for all members, and peaceful settlement of any problems that should arise within or concerning the hemisphere.  In 1955, this organization successful;ly intervened in a rebellion in Costa Rica, easing tensions and preventing outright war.

In April, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or "NATO," was founded.  It consisted of an alliance of twelve nations, and constituted a form of defense against the then-perceived hostility of the Soviet bloc.  By its terms, all members promised that an attack against any one of them would be considered and dealt with as an attack upon them all.  As a response, the Soviet Union organized the Warsaw Pact,  a military alliance with six eastern European nations, containing similar principles and agreements.

Eight nations met in Bangkok in 1955 for their first councilar meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, or "SEATO."  Two months later, in April, 1955, representatives of twenty nine African and Asian nations gathered in Bandung, Indonesia, to discuss ways to promote cultural and economic cooperation, and to oppose colonialism.    

During the 1960s, representatives from a number of African nations met in efforts to combine their various peoples, having diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, into unified political and economic states.  This movement, termed "Pan-Africanism," was championed by many leaders as the only way  to put an end to Africa's continued economic and cultural subordination to the nations of Europe.  An example was a meeting held in 1961 by a group of African heads of state in Casablanca, to announce a plan for common defense.  These desires culminated in the founding, by thirty African nations, of the Organization for African Unity in 1963.  It took its examples from the United Nations; and tried to shape its policies and procedures using the U.N. as a model.  However, the O.A.U. has unfortunately exshibited a poor record in condemning and/or curbing subsequent human rights abuses within the African continent.  These failures have been followed by a resultant decline in its influence and authority.

1961 saw a number of conferences, acknowledgments, and announcements of alliance among groups of nations.  Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia invited twenty five non-aligned nations to a conference in September of that year, to discuss said nations' common circumstances and problems.  A similar subsequent meeting of non-aligned nations was held in Lima, Peru in August, 1975.  This time, three additional countries joined the proceeding:  North Korea, Panama, and Vietnam. 

During the same month (September, 1961), Egyptian leader Gamel Nasser proclaimed a similar dream of creating an organization that would represent all of the Arab world.  In 1965, at another meeting at Casablanca, twelve Arab nations signed a solidarity pact.  Subsequently, the Muslim world formed the Islamic Conference, which was said in 1980 to represent thirty six countries and 900 million people.  Ironically, Egypt was afterward expelledfrom membership by reason of its allegedly over-friendly relations with Israel.  Subsequently, in 1984, the membership, which had now grown to forty nations, voted to readmit Egypt once more.