UNRISD UNITED NATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT UN Social Thinking in Historical Perspective Louis Emmerij, Richard Jolly and Thomas G. Weiss prepared for the UNRISD conference on Social Knowledge and International Policy Making: Exploring the Linkages 20–21 April 2004 • Geneva, Switzerland This document is not for citation or circulation without the prior consent of the author(s) The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) is an autonomous agency engaging in multidisciplinary research on the social dimensions of contemporary prob- lems affecting development. Its work is guided by the conviction that, for effective development policies to be formulated, an understanding of the social and political context is crucial. 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The responsibility for opinions expressed in signed studies rests solely with their author(s), and availability on the UNRISD website (www.unrisd.org) does not constitute an endorsement by UNRISD of the opinions expressed in them. No citation, publication or distribution of these papers is permitted without the prior authorization of the author(s). UN SOCIAL THINKING IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Louis Emmerij, Richard Jolly and Thomas G. Weiss** Paper prepared for the 40th Anniversary Conference of UNRISD, “Social Knowledge and International Policy Making – Exploring Linkages” Geneva, 20-21 April 2004 You can record the 20th century as a story of astonishing technical progress. You can tell it as a rise and fall of powers, or as a painful recovery from modern society’s relapses into barbarism. But if you leave out ideas, you leave out what people were ready to live and die for. —The Economist, January 17, 2004, p. 80. Introduction It may come as a surprise that there is no comprehensive history of the United Nations, neither institutional nor intellectual. Several specialized agencies have written or are in the process of writing their institutional histories, which is indeed what all organizations need to do. The Bretton Woods institutions in this respect are far ahead. The World Bank has published two massive histories—one on the occasion of its twenty- fifth and the other (two volumes and more than 2000 pages) of its fiftieth anniversary. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has an in-house historian who ensures the capture of its place in history with regular publications.1 The UN story deserves to be better documented if it is to be better appreciated. The authors of this paper are tackling one aspect of this neglected task, a history of ideas launched or nurtured by the world organization.2 The United Nations Intellectual History Project (UNIHP) began in 1999 and has already or will soon produce a host of products that shed light on the role of the UN system in creating social knowledge and in influencing international policy making. Our assignment for this conference is to reflect upon “the contribution to development debates and policy of research and knowledge associated with UN agencies.” In order to do so, this essay proceeds to answer the following: CHow does this relate to the mandate above? CWhat constitutes ideas and social knowledge in the UN system? CWhat is their impact on international policy making? CWhat are the linkages between research outside and inside the UN? CIs UN research sufficiently critical? The United Nations Intellectual History Project 3 Ideas are a driving force in human progress. They may be the most important legacy of the United Nations for human rights, economic and social development, as well as for peace and security. Because of this, the lack of attention to the UN’s role in generating ideas is perplexing. But this neglect is part of a more general blindness. As Ngaire Woods has noted, “ideas, whether economic or not, have been left out of analyses of international relations.”3 The study of ideas, although relatively new in analyses of international politics and organizations, has long been common bill of fare for historians, philosophers, economists, and students of literature. Peter Watson in a recent book on intellectual trends puts the point dramatically: “Once we get away from the terrible calamities that have afflicted our century, once we lift our eyes from the horrors of the past decades, the dominant intellectual trend, the most interesting enduring and profound development, is very clear. Our century has been dominated intellectually by a coming to terms with science.” Watson’s intellectual focus is on science. We would emphasise the contribution of a wider range of ideas in the international arena. But we share the conviction that ideas are so often central.”4 What, then, is an intellectual history, and how does one go about writing one? Although the term can have a variety of meanings, “intellectual history” in our case seeks to explain the origins of particular ideas; trace their trajectories within institutions, scholarship, or discourse; and in some cases, certainly in ours, evaluate the impact of ideas on policy and action. We focus upon and seek to analyze the role of the UN as an intellectual actor. Four questions often arise about existing approaches to the study of ideas. The first question is which comes first, an idea or a policy challenge? Most approaches to international relations do not explain the sources of ideas, just their effects. They rarely explain how ideas emerge or change. By ignoring where ideas come from and how they change, we cannot ascertain cause and effect. Do ideas shape policy? Or does a policy challenge call existing ideas forward and perhaps generate new ideas that may emerge in response to that policy or action? As the reader will discover, we are finding many variations and are coming closer to answers, but we still have our own synthesis to do, based on the research commissioned by the project. A second question is whether ideas arise and exist in particular situations, or whether they have a life of their own. We are trying to trace the trajectory of ideas within the UN and examine how individual leadership, coalitions, and national and bureaucratic rivalries within it have generated, distorted, and implemented particular ideas. At the same time, we also hope to discern how ideas, in and of themselves, have helped to shape policy outcomes at the UN. There is a related, long-standing debate among intellectual historians whether an idea should be analyzed in the light of the historical and social context within which it emerged, or whether it can be understood on its own, without reference to context. We favor the former school and thus assume that economic and social ideas at the UN cannot be properly understood if divorced from their historical and social context. The birth and survival of ideas in the UN—or their death and 4 suppression—invariably reflect events and are contingent upon politics and the world economy. A third question is when to begin tracing the trajectory of a particular idea. Ideas are rarely totally new. At what point in its life or in which of its many possible incarnations should one begin to study an idea? We explore antecedents wherever possible, and often go back before the beginning of the UN in 1945. A related issue is ownership. The difficulty of identifying a single individual or institution responsible for the creation of an idea is one illustration of this problem. We decided not to undertake the type of historical analysis pioneered by Arthur Lovejoy, who sought to trace an idea “through all the provinces of history in which it appears.”5 Rather, we pick up an idea at the time it intersects with the UN, and then trace its most important antecedents. A fourth and final question relates to the influence of ideas versus the individuals who put them forward.6 There is little consensus here. It can be argued that the more influential the purveyors, and the more powerful the countries or interests supporting them the greater the odds that their ideas will be adopted. Ideas presuppose human agents which is why we are documenting through oral history the role of individuals in the evolution of international economic and social development. Did ideas emanate from within UN secretariats, or from outside the world organization through governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), experts, or consultants? What happened to these ideas? Were they discarded without discussion or after deliberation? Were they discussed, adapted, distorted, and then implemented? What happened afterwards? UNIHP involves 12 thematic studies, 2 synthesis volumes, and some 75 oral histories, all mutually reinforcing. The 14 volumes are being written by one or more professionals, selected for their scholarly credentials and knowledge of the topic to be researched. Each author has been identified by the co-directors in consultation with members of the International Advisory Council of the Project.7 The three co-directors are involved as co-authors in five of the volumes.