Eighty years ago this month, the United Nations Weekly Bulletin, predecessor of the UN Chronicle, began its long run of providing coverage of what was then a nascent world organization – the United Nations. In celebration of this anniversary, we revisited the first issue of this magazine, dated 3 August 1946, to consider what it can tell us about the work of the Organization today and in the years ahead.
In an era of profound change, our first issue emerged along with countless other firsts. Among other items, it included the “Introduction” to the first annual report of the Secretary-General on the work of the United Nations, which was 66 pages long in full, even though it only covered the first few months following the first part of the first session of the General Assembly, held in London in January and February of 1946. The introduction was written by Trygve Lie, the first Secretary-General of the United Nations, who gave a clear-eyed overview of the developments and problems encountered in setting up the management, programming and policies of the new Organization. It dealt with matters related to the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and the Secretariat, as well as the transfer of League of Nations assets, and agreements between great Powers.
But Mr. Lie also expressed pointed concerns about public perception: “Has the United Nations succeeded in capturing the imagination and in harnessing the enthusiasm of the peoples of the world? I, for one, do not feel that it has done so in the degree that might be hoped for.” He felt this could be partly explained by the slowness of United Nations proceedings stemming from a preoccupation with matters of procedure and organization. For bureaucratic institutions the world over, having too many layers of administration leads to inefficiency, and the United Nations system has been no exception. But international relations is a complex diplomatic business, and the Secretary-General issued a note of caution on the pace of work: “It is unquestionably better that time be employed in the proper settlement of controversies when hasty agreement could only lead to future trouble.”
Mr. Lie also lamented the “lack of historical perspective in surveying the world as we find it today”, and believed that much could be done to “educate” and “awaken” public opinion to appreciate more fully the significance of the often undramatic but fundamental work of the United Nations, and to correct certain widespread misunderstandings concerning the Charter of the United Nations and the functions and limitations of the Organization. He further emphasized the importance of public information and perspective in his introduction to the inaugural issue of the United Nations Weekly Bulletin itself, observing that “...it is natural that the public look to the Secretariat for authoritative information on the problems with which the United Nations is dealing and on the steps that are being taken with regard to them”. He surely saw a key role for content about the United Nations produced by the Organization itself, namely through the new magazine that would one day be known as the UN Chronicle.
Where do we stand? the Secretary-General ultimately asked, reckoning with the road ahead by invoking memories of the aftermath of the First World War (1914–1918):
We may find some source of encouragement and inspiration for the successful settlement of our difficulties, by recalling that in certain important respects the international situation in 1919 and 1920 was more serious than it is today. And the very existence of the United Nations is now a factor of inestimable value. If anyone doubts this, he has only to ask himself what would now be the state of relationship between peoples and the prospects for peace of the world if the United Nations were not in being. There is no cause for discouragement, still less for pessimism.
Fast-forward 80 years and it is of course impossible to say how Trygve Lie would feel about the international situation today in relation to the evolution and capacity of the United Nations. Yet it is an absorbing exercise to give it some thought, particularly as the reforms of the UN80 Initiative take hold, aiming to make the Organization more agile and effective and reaffirm the relevance of the United Nations in a rapidly changing world.
In 1946, as today, the Secretary-General acknowledged the vulnerabilities of the United Nations as well as what it takes for it to succeed: “Of itself it can do nothing. It is a machinery through which the nations can co-operate. It can be used and developed in the light of its activities and experience, to the untold benefits of humanity, or it can be discarded and broken. … The choice is between life and death.”
So where do we stand? In pursuit of social progress, better standards of life in larger freedom, and international justice, the work that started in 1946 continues in earnest, and given the limitless potential for human development, it will never stop. Work also persists, doggedly, for the maintenance of peace and security, which relies on the collective action of States and use of the good offices offered by the United Nations and other international organizations. The end of armed conflict may be elusive, but the reality is there have been no more world wars since those words of Secretary-General Lie appeared in our first edition; as he lived through two such wars, this would undoubtedly have given him some satisfaction.
Below, unedited, is another text that appeared in the first edition of this magazine, positioned as an inset to the report introduction by Secretary-General Lie examined above. It may be short, but this article stands as a timebound account of the methodical approach employed by the United Nations to handle the principal task in its first year of operation – namely, intercontinental reconstruction after the Second World War (1939–1945). It also offers a glimpse of the world we left behind with the emergence of the modern multilateral system – a world that could return if conflicts were once again allowed to escalate beyond control.
The UN Chronicle celebrates 80 years of promoting knowledge of the work of the United Nations, reaffirming faith that the Organization keeps pushing for a better world for all humanity, through times of progress and adversity. Some things never change, and the mission of the United Nations is one of them.
“U. N. Plans Reconstruction”
From the United Nations Weekly Bulletin, predecessor of the UN Chronicle, 3 August 1946 (Volume I, No. 1), p. 11.
On July 29 in London the Temporary Sub-Commission on the Economic Reconstruction of Devastated Areas convened for its first meeting. This is the latest development in the effort to produce an international program for reconstruction, which began with the very first session of the General Assembly in London.
On February 2, 1946, the General Assembly passed a resolution which took note of the facts that the war had resulted in unprecedented destruction in vast areas; that the peace-loving nations which had suffered such damage represented nearly one-half of mankind; that world economy must be seriously affected by the removal of large regions from the normal flow of trade; that standards of living and health have been undermined dangerously, productive capacity lost, and in some cases normal economic activities totally destroyed.
This destruction, the resolution noted, could not be made good, nor the shaken economy of the world restored, unless great amounts of new capital goods are invested in the destroyed areas. In most cases it would be impossible to reconstruct as efficiently and speedily as is required if the affected countries are limited to their internal resources and possibilities.
The resolution therefore asked the Economic and Social Council urgently to consider the question of the reconstruction of war-devastated areas.
The Economic and Social Council, on the advice of its Economic and Employment Commission, appointed the present 20-member Sub-Commission.
The Sub-Commission’s immediate job is to provide the Council at its third session with a preliminary survey of war devastation in Europe, Africa and Asia and to make recommendations to the Council on measures required by the United Nations which would ease the plight of the devastated countries and facilitate their recovery.
The Sub-Commission is authorized to make inquiries in devastated areas, with the consent of the countries concerned.
Because the task of investigation divides itself naturally into inquiries in two separate areas, Europe and Africa on the one hand and Asia on the other, the Secretary-General of the United Nations was directed to designate two Working Groups from the personnel of the Sub-Commission. Having designated the first of these, he decided that some preliminary discussion by the full Sub-Commission on the proposed scope and methods of inquiry in Asia is called for before it would be useful to designate the second Group.
The UN Chronicle is not an official record. It is privileged to host senior United Nations officials as well as distinguished contributors from outside the United Nations system whose views are not necessarily those of the United Nations. Similarly, the boundaries and names shown, and the designations used, in maps or articles do not necessarily imply endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.
