Book Review: Termination of Membership of International Organisations
| Published date | 01 October 1959 |
| Date | 01 October 1959 |
| DOI | 10.1177/004711785900101208 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
helped
to
creat in vital areas. In considering federalism, particularly European
federalism, he illustrates something too often forgotten, that it means
widely
different
and
generally irreconcilable things
to
its advocates. Each solution
advanced holds within it the promise
of
at least one bitter and
bloody"
civil
..
war.
All the essays in the American section provoke fresh thought and throw
neW
light
on
the American domestic problem
and
its impact on her foreign
policY·
An
anniversary address on Benjamin Franklin's diplomacy in 1776 gives rise
to
an
assessment
of
the"
natural"
foreign policy for anew member
of
international
society which
is
pertinent to the issue today. Alook
at
Tocqueville suggests
the
necessity
of
revising easy .. Pilgrim
Dinner"
platitudes
on
Anglo-American
political roots and activities.
But"
we should remember
that
in
moments of
supreme crisis in the Western world it (America) has always hitherto intervened
before it was too late with decisive
effect",
though this
is
not
to say that
an
earlier"
intervention"
might
not
have avoided the crisis,
or
softened its
effe<:t>
S
.
In
conclusion it might be all to the good if
we
took Professor Beloff's
adVIce
and
concentrated
on
reassessing
our
own Western society rather
than
devoting
so much
of
our
attention to developments in the U.S.S.R. By so doing
we
might even regain the initiative
we
have so catastrophically lost.
Termination
of
Membership
of
International Organisations. Nagandra Singh.
London, Stevens. 30/-. .
The
author
has set out to prove by legal argument the legitimacy
of
the claIm
of
Communist China to representation in the United Nations.
To
debar her
from her seat is, he holds, tantamount to atermination
of
her membership and
such termination is aviolation
of
the Charter. The provisions
of
the Charter
and
other constituent instruments regarding the right
of
aState
to
withdraw
and
the right
of
an
international organisation
to
terminate membership.
ar~
clearly
and
logically expounded and analysed. On the China issue Mr.
SlOg
makes three main points: (a) States,
not
Governments, are members
of
an Inter-
national organisation, (b) although individual Governments may apply tests for
recognising new Governments
an
international organisation
is
without
IO~I~
standi to
do
so,
(c)
"to deny, therefore, the effective mouthpiece
of
China,
whlc
is
today the Government
of
Mao-Tse-Tung, its rights
and
obligations
is
to com-
mit
an
international
wrong".
If
the Republic
of
China violated the Charter
by
her invasion
of
Korea the correct legal action would be to expel the State
f~om
membership. Quite
apart
from the special pleading this
is
avaluable contribU-
tion
to
the study
of
the provisions
of
international organisations providing for
the termination
of
membership.
The Study
of
Political Behaviour. D. E. Butler. Hutchinson. 18/-.
Mr. Butler's most timely book says something that badly needed saying to the
latest "
band
of
happy
brothers"
set
on
improving the human condition, that
the
term"
political
science"
as it is all too often understood in the
Anglo-Sa~on
world
is
amisnomer.
"Science"
in this field is aquestion-begging word sInce
it
appears to imply
that
the same degree
of
generality
and
exactness can. be
expected from the employment
of
certain methods in the social as in the phySIcal
sciences. When it
is
pointed
out
that
they have not, so far, been achieved the
answer usually given is that
if
as much money were devoted to this type
of
research
as
is
given say to the production
of
H-bombs
or
chemical engineering, then the
results would be equally good, areply which the
author
takes leave to doubt,
with good reasons. His aim
is
to promote the academic study
of
political be-
haviour,
but
he holds that this can be achieved
by
modest claims
on
its behalf
based on acool, critical
and
dispassionate estimate
of
its uses and its
limita~ion,~'
rather than
on
over-inflated praise
of
the effectiveness
of
.. human engineering J
or
of
the various general systems
of
political study
that
have such loud an
enthusiastic salesmen, particularly in America. .
He
has ahigh regard for statistics where they can be used,
but"
measuring
IS
646
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