The United Nations and World Powers On January 1st 1942 US President Roosevelt and British PM Churchill issued the Declaration of the United Nations, inviting all countries fighting the Axis powers to join. As WWII drew to a close the United States created international institutions to enforce its domination over the world order. In the economic sphere the Bretton Woods Agreement in July 1944 and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in 1945. The United States became the world’s central banker. The United Nations was supposed to be dedicated to the principle of collective security. However US hostility towards the Soviet Union rapidly dominated events replacing the grand ideals of international cooperation and mutual respect with theatrical presentations of the Soviet threat. The most famous being the photographic display of Soviet missile bases in Cuba. The unification of Germany and the collapse of the Soviet Union transformed relations between the powers. Apparently fixed and stable relations in Europe and the wider world overnight were replaced by unstable, chaotic and violent conflicts, in which the post war European-US consensus broke down. In 1991 fighting broke out in Yugoslavia, which led to nine years of war, the then Secretary General of the UN Perez de Cuellar, “wrote
in the strongest terms to urge Germany not to give diplomatic recognition to
Croatia, a land with historic ties to Germany. If Croatia’s independence were
accepted internationally, other parts of Yugoslavia would declare independence
as well, and a drastic struggle for territory could break out.” … “The cataclysm that subsequently engulfed Bosnia cannot be attributed solely to foolish acts of diplomatic recognition, but recognition undoubtedly triggered the explosion….” Boutros Boutros Ghali, p.37
France is the primary military and diplomatic representative of the European union, as the only country that produces all military hardware from bullets to nuclear weapons. At the end of World War 2 the French were the dominant capitalist power in continental Europe displacing Germany and seeking to contain it. U.S. power controlled Europe and provided the material means through Marshall Aid to sustain capitalist governments in power and the military means through NATO to ‘protect’ them from the Soviet Army. Thus NATO was formed in 1949 as this ‘collective defence pact’. In 1966, the French withdrew from NATO’s Military command. Contrary to Tony Blair’s assertions Britain was never at the heart of Europe and has always been mistrusted by Germany and France, as the Trojan Horse of the United States. The European Union which had been subordinate to the US, economically, politically and militarily, now became the main contender for world hegemony. This is the underlying cause of the increasing friction between the USA and the European Union. In the last 25 years the US lost its dominant world trade position to Europe. In 1999 the European Union held 31% of the market share of global exports and 29% of imports, the United States in contrast held only 10% of global exports and 14% of exports. (OECD Statistics of Foreign Trade Vol. 12) In all except the ASEAN* and Asia Pacific region Europe has superseded the US in market share. US use bilateralism and the EU multilateralism to pursue their policies and interests, thus we see Germany and France elevating the UN as world arbiter in order to containing US ambitions in the Gulf and elsewhere. Each step towards consolidating European diplomatic and economic domination has been undertaken with friction. The US insisted that all East Europe join the EU and NATO. A study by the US Department of Energy estimated that the total cost to the US of the monopolisation of the oil market from 1972-1993 was in the range of $4 trillion. (Department of Energy 1993, The Social Costs to the US of Monopolization of the World Oil Market, 1972-1991) PSD To HTML conversion is important to webmasters because they cannot use the PSD file as it is for their web pages. if you need PSD To HTML conversion service save yourself some time, effort and money and send it in to the professionals. In the years after the 1st World War, U.S. capitalism began to surpass British, the transition to dominant world power, was only completed after the 2nd world war, when Britain accepted its role as junior partner to the USA.Of course as with national state structures, ministries, bureaucracies, there are many inside and outside the institutions of the UN who believe in its role and mission, and attempt within the parameters of real-politik ‘to do what good they can’. It is instructive therefore to let such UN politicians speak for themselves so that a clear pattern can be discerned, and the real relations of power be revealed.
------------- * The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), encompasses 10 South East Asian countries. Its key position in the Asia-Pacific region, its dedication to peace and stability in the region and its important economic weight have made ASEAN an essential partner for the European Union in Asia. |