United Nations and Nation-Building
| Author | Nina Heathcote |
| Published date | 01 March 1965 |
| Date | 01 March 1965 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070206502000102 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
United
Nations
and
Nation-building
Nina
Heathcote*
Is
"nation-building"
an
effective
new
technique
for maintaining
stability
in
international
politics?
After the last
war
nationalism
appeared
to
be
in
decline.
The resurgence of
the
two superpowers
and
the
accompanying
decrease
of
importance
of
the
European
states
(for
long,
the
nation
states
of
the
modern
world),
led
many,
particularly
in
the
West, to
believe
that
the
end
of
nationalism
was
at
hand.
There
was
also
moral
revulsion
against
the
nation
state,
which
was
credited
with
an
essentially
evil
character-responsible,
it
was
supposed,
for
two
world
wars
and
bound
to
cause
more.
As
a more
viable
alternative to
the
post-war
polarization
of
power,
which
had
been
reflected
in such
alliances
as
NATO
and
the
Warsaw
Pact,
it
was
thought
that
the
number
of
states
should
best
be
reduced
so
as
to
form
larger
units,
i.e.
regional
rather
than
national groupings.
The
European
Economic
Community
(EEC)
was
a
striking
expression
of
this
sort
of
thinking.1
The
United
Nations
somewhat
mitigated
such
general
deni-
gration
of
the
nation
state.
The
Charter,
for
example,
Articles
39
(Chapter
VII)
and
99
(Chapter
XV)
seems
to
assume
that
all
the
world's
populated
territories
are
(or
will
come
to
be)
divided
amongst
sovereign
nation
states.
2
Moreover,
as
Ham-
marskjold
pointed
out,
it
lays
down
"some
basic
rules
of
inter-
national
ethics
by
which
all
Member
States
have
committed
themselves to
be
guided."
In
this
sense,
according
to
Hammar-
skjold,
the
Charter
takes
a
first
step
"in
the
direction
of
an
*
Department
of
Political
Science,
Australian
National
University,
Canberra.
1
Cf.
the
views
of
Walter
Hallstein,
Economic
Integration
and
Political
Unity
in
Europe,
a
speech
made before
a
joint
meeting
of
Harvard
University and
the
Massachusetts
Institute
of
Technology, May
22,
1961,
Information
Service
of
the
European
Communities (London),
p.
6.
2
A.
L.
Burns
and
Nina
Heathcote,
Peacekeeping
by
UN
Forces
from
Suez
to
the
Congo
(New
York,
1963),
p.
23.
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