SPECIAL REPORT: UNITED NATIONS AT 75 THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE UN
REFLECTIONS ON THE UN AT 75 AND THE WORK OF THE UN ASSOCIATIONS A UK Parliamentarian reflects on the United Nations at 75 and looks at the institution from the perspective of an academic, Parliamentarian and Chair of a UN Association. I am privileged to be able to view the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations with the perspective of three different professional hats. As an academic who has taught politics at Oxford University since 1995, I have always thought of the UN as a little miracle of the postWW2 world. The daily price it pays of compromise and impasse, diplomatic roadblocks and states wilfully ignoring its rules, is more than repaid by the quiet transformations of our world that the UN is helping to bring about. Because every day the UN is responsible for feeding, clothing and vaccinating those most in need, keeping the peace and keeping refugees alive, trying to stop states failing and helping new states survive and thrive. When disaster strikes the UN is first in and last out. The truth is that if it didn’t exist, it could never be created now. And for all its limitations, our world is so much better for the vision and battles that built it 75 years ago. My second hat is that of Chair of the UK’s United Nations Association (UNA-UK). The UNA network across the world was formed to serve as a bridge between the public and the United Nations. The early Associations captured the spirit of post-war enthusiasm and were also engaged in reconstruction work. A second wave of UNAs formed in the wake of decolonisation and new nationbuilding, from the late 1950s to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. There are now just over 100 UNAs, including an active European network. Their core mission is to provide information to the public about what the UN does – through work with schools and universities, to public information and outreach, campaigns,
and briefings for Parliamentarians and decision-makers. Some, like UNAs in China and Norway, are closely associated with their governments and receive most of their funding from foreign or development ministries. Some, like UNA-UK and UNA-USA, have a full-time paid staff and draw their funding instead from foundations, members and public donors. They also differ greatly in their approach. UNA-UK combines information and education with advocacy and campaigning. We focus not only on the UN, but on the UK's relationship with it, by hosting public events, conducting research, producing various publications and working in partnership with a range of individuals and organisations. There are many UNAs that focus mainly on education and youth work, including Model UNs. While others such as Ghana’s and Pakistan’s UNAs run practical projects – working with refugees, young people, promoting tree-planting and drug awareness, for example. UNA-UK shares its birth year with the United Nations, and like the UN, it is a second take. The Association’s roots lie in the League of Nations Union (LNU), formed in 1918 to promote international justice and collective security through the establishment of the League of Nations. It became the largest and most influential peace organisation in the UK, with nearly half a million members, playing an important role in British politics with the involvement of prominent Liberal and Conservative politicians. The LNU felt that Britain’s growing isolationism had to be countered by a massive demonstration of support for a UK foreign policy in which the League played a central role. The collapse of the League demanded a new approach after World War Two. On 7 June 1945, three weeks before the United Nations Charter was opened for signature, UNA-UK held its first meeting. On 10 October, a fortnight before the UN Charter entered into force, the Association was inaugurated in a packed Royal Albert
Lord Stewart Wood of Anfield is a Labour peer, an academic at Oxford University and the Chair of the United Nations Association (UK). In the UK House of Lords, he serves on the European Union Select Committee and the International Relations Committee. From 2001-2007, he was a member of the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Council of Economic Advisers, focusing on EU affairs, and from 2007-10 he served as senior Special Adviser to the UK Prime Minister on foreign policy. Between 2010 and 2015, he was a member of the Shadow Cabinet. In his academic work, he has written extensively on European politics, in particular the politics of economic and welfare policy.
The Parliamentarian | 2020: Issue Three | 100 years of publishing 1920-2020 | 237
