Interdisciplinary Programmes
Academic year 2019-2020 PROFESSOR
United Nations: A Global History Jussi Hanhimaki
Office hours: Wednesdays 11-12.30 MINT150 - Spring - 6 ECTS
ASSISTANT Wednesday 16h15 - 18h00 Severyan Dyakonov
Course Description Office hours
Why was the UN founded? How has it changed over the course of its 75-year history? Where might it be heading? By analyzing the evolution of the United Nations' role in global affairs this course aims to find answers to these broad questions. It surveys the historical and political contexts that shaped the birth, behavior, and performance of international organizations in the 19th and early 20th centuries; the transformation of the League of Nations into the United Nations; the impact of the Cold War and decolonization on the UN's goals and effectiveness; and the changing role of the UN in the post-Cold War era. We will examine the functions of the different parts of the UN system and analyze the evolution of UN policies and practices against the patterns of change and continuity in international affairs.
Syllabus (Subject to change)
REQUIREMENTS
This course will be designed around weekly discussions and presentations. There will be a set of weekly readings (articles, chapters of books, and documents) on specific themes (indicated below). The detailed reading list will be available at the first meeting.
Assessment will be based upon written work (paper and a take-home exam), oral presentations, and participation. Regular attendance is required.
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MAISON DE LA PAIX
GRADING:
- Document exercise (details to come): 20% - Final paper (a policy briefing): 40% - Presentation 20% - Participation 20%.
Class participation means, simply, your overall involvement in the intellectual exchange during the course. It requires, above all, that you prepare for each meeting by studying the appropriate readings and engage in the discussions. Please also note that attendance will be taken each week.
The document exercise will be due on April 3 (Friday).
Each student will give a presentation of approximately 10-15 minutes on a topic related to one of the subjects discussed during the course of the term. The use of visual aides (such as Powerpoint) is required. The schedule –topics and dates – will be arranged during the first meeting(s).
The final paper, due in the last week of classes, will be in the form of a policy-briefing. Details will be provided.
Accessing reading materials: students will be able to access all reading materials in the library or via the Institute’s Moodle service.
OUTLINE OF TOPICS (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
FEBRUARY 19 No meeting – Professor available via email for any questions you may have: [email protected])
FEBRUARY 26 INTRODUCTION
MARCH 4 INTERNATIONALISM IN HISTORY
MARCH 11 ‘WE THE PEOPLES’: WORLD WAR II AND THE FOUNDING OF THE UN
MARCH 18 COLD WAR CRISES AT THE UN
MARCH 25 DECOLONIZATION AND THE UN
APRIL 1 PEACEKEEPING TO PEACEBUILDING
April 3 (Friday) Document exercise due
APRIL 8 CASE STUDIES/DISCUSSION OF DOCUMENT EXERCISE
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*********************** EASTER BREAK ************************
APRIL 22 ECONOMIC SECURITY: TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT
APRIL 29 MIGRATION AND REFUGEES
MAY 6 HUMAN RIGHTS TO RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT
MAY 13 GLOBAL HEALTH AND THE UN
MAY 20 ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE
MAY 27 THE FUTURE
***Final papers due***
SELECTED GENERAL READINGS (useful for all or most topics):
Linda Fasulo, An Insider’s Guide to the United Nations
Jussi Hanhimäki, The United Nations: A Very Short Introduction
Akira Iriye, Global Community: The Role of International Organizations in the Making of the Modern World
Paul Kennedy, The Parliament of Man: The Past, Present and Future of the United Nations
Mark Mazower, Governing the World: The History of an Idea
Stanley Meisler, United Nations: A History
Amy Sayward, The United Nations in International History
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WEEKLY READINGS (SUBJECT TO REVISION)
March 4 INTERNATIONALISM IN HISTORY
Required:
Mark Mazower, Governing the World, Chapter 5: The League of Nations, pp. 116-153
G. Sluga, Internationalism in the Age of Nationalism (2013), Chapter 2: Imagine Geneva Between The Wars.
Amy Sayward, United Nations in International History, chapter 2: “The National and International Origins of the United Nations”, pp. 7-20.
Recommended:
Mark Mazower, Governing the World (2013)
G. Sluga, Internationalism in the Age of Nationalism (2013)
Patricia Clavin and Glenda Sluga (eds.), Internationalisms: A Twentieth-Century History (2017)
MARCH 11 ‘WE THE PEOPLES’: WORLD WAR II AND THE FOUNDING OF THE UN
Required:
Mazower, Governing the World, Chapter 7: “The League is Dead. Long Live the United Nations”, pp. 191-213.
John Ikenberry, After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars (2000), chapter 6: “The Settlement of 1945,” pp. 163-214.
Recommended:
Paul Kennedy, The Parliament of Man: The Past, Present and Future of the United Nations, chapter 1: “The Troubled Advance to a New World Order”, pp. 3-50.
Plesch, Dan (2008) 'How the UN beat Hitler and prepared the peace.' Global Society, 22 (1). pp. 137- 158.
MARCH 18 COLD WAR CRISES AT THE UN
Required:
- Page 4 - David Bosco, Five to Rule Them All: The UN Security Council and the Making of the Modern World , chs 2 and 3, pp. 49-111.
Mazower, Governing the World, Chapter 8, “Cold War Realities”
Recommended:
Paul Kennedy, The Parliament of Man: The Past, Present and Future of the United Nations, chapter 2: “The Conundrum of the Security Council”, pp. 51-76.
MARCH 25 DECOLONIZATION AND THE UN
Required:
Jessica Lynne Pearson, “Defending Empire at the United Nations: The Politics of International Colonial Oversight in the Era of Decolonisation,” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 45:3 (2017), pp. 525-549
Neta Coward, “Decolonization through Trusteeship: The Legacy of Ralph Bunche” chapter 6 in Trustee for the Human Community: Ralph J. Bunche, the United Nations, and the Decolonization of Africa, ed. by Robert Hill and Edward Keller.
Muschik, E. (2018). Managing the world: The United Nations, decolonization, and the strange triumph of state sovereignty in the 1950s and 1960s. Journal of Global History, 13(1), 121-144.
Recommended:
Mazower, Mark. No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations ( 2009).
Marika Sherwood, '"There Is No New Deal for the Blackman in San Francisco': African Attempts to Influence the Founding Conference of the United Nations, April-July 1945," International Journal of African Historical Studies 29, no. 1 (1996): 71-94
APRIL 1 PEACEKEEPING TO PEACEBUILDING
Required:
Paul Kennedy, The Parliament of Man: The Past, Present and Future of the United Nations, chapter 3: “Peacekeeping and Warmaking,” pp. 77-113.
Dennis C. Jett, Why Peacekeeping Fails (2019), pp. 1-57
Recommended:
Ramesh Thakur, The United Nations, Peace and Security: From Collective Security to Responsibility to Protect (2009)
Mats Berdal and Spyros Economides, United Nations Interventionism, 1991-2004 (2007)
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APRIL 8 CASE STUDIES/DISCUSSION OF DOCUMENT EXERCISE
TBD
*********************** EASTER BREAK ************************
APRIL 22 ECONOMIC SECURITY: TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT
Required:
Paul Kennedy, Economic Agendas, North and South,” in the Parliament of Man, 113-142.
Amy Sayward, United Nations in International History, ch. 5: “The Development Enterprise”
Marc Frey, Sönke Kunkel and Corinna R. Unger (eds), International Organizations and Development, 1945-1990: “Introduction: International Organizations, Global Development, and the Making of the Contemporary World,” pp. 1-22.
Recommended:
Marc Frey, Sönke Kunkel and Corinna R. Unger (eds), International Organizations and Development, 1945-1990
Amy Staples, The Birth of Development: How the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization, and World Health Organization Changed the World, 1945–1965 ( 2006).
The Development Century: A Global History, ed. Stephen J. Macekura and Erez Manela (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 240–259.
Stephen Macekura, Of Limits and Growth: The Rise of Global Sustainable Development in the Twentieth Century (2015)
APRIL 29 HUMAN SECURITY: MIGRATION AND REFUGEES
Required:
Peter Gatrell, The Making of the Modern Refugee (2013), Introduction, pp. 1-18.
Alexander Betts, The Politics and Practice of Refugee Protection (2008), chapter 2: “UNHCR in the Cold War,” pp. 18-48.
Gil Loescher, “The UNHCR and World Politics: State Interests vs. Institutional Autonomy,” The International Migration Review Vol. 35, No. 1, Special Issue: UNHCR at 50: Past, Present and Future of Refugee Assistance (Spring, 2001), pp. 33-56.
- Page 6 - Recommended:
Betts, Alexander, and Gil Loescher, eds. Refugees in International Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Alexander Betts, The Politics and Practice of Refugee Protection (2008),
Peter Gatrell, The Making of the Modern Refugee (2013)
Gil Loescher, UNHCR and World Politics: A Perilous Path (2003)
MAY 6 HUMAN RIGHTS VS. STATE SOVEREIGNTY
Required:
Paul Kennedy, The Parliament of Man, chapter 6: “Advancing International Human Rights,” pp. 177- 205.
Mark Mazower, 'The Strange Triumph of Human Rights, 1933-1950," Historical Journal 47 (2004): 37
Samuel Moyn, The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History. Cambridge Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010.
Recommended:
Samuel Moyn, Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World (2018)
MAY 13 GLOBAL HEALTH AND THE UN
Required: Marcos Cueto, Theodore M. Brown and Elizabeth Fee, The World Health Organization: A History (2019), Introduction, pp. 1-10
Chelsea Clinton and Devi Sridhar, Governing Global Health: Who Runs the World and Why (2017), pp. 1-22.
Randall M. Packard, A History of Global Health: Interventions into the Lives of Other Peoples (2016)
Recommended: Matthew Connelly, Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population (2010)
Selected documents TBD
MAY 20 ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Required:
- Page 7 - Stephen Macekura, “The World's Most Dangerous Political Issue”: The 1972 Stockholm Conference and the Politics of Environmental Protection. Chapter 3 in Macekura, Of Limits and Growth: The Rise of Global Sustainable Development in the Twentieth Century, pp. 91-134. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Selected documents TBD
MAY 27 THE FUTURE OF THE UN
No readings
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