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Uniting Nations is a comparative study of Britons who worked in the United Nations and international non-governmental and civil society organizations from 1945 to 1970 and their role in forging the postwar international system. Daniel Gorman interweaves the personal histories of scores of individuals who worked in UN organizations, the world government movement, Quaker international volunteer societies, and colonial freedom societies to demonstrate how international public policy often emerged 'from the ground up.' He reveals the importance of interwar, Second World War, colonial, and voluntary experiences in inspiring international careers, how international and national identities intermingled in the minds of international civil servants and civil society activists, and the ways in which international policy is personal. It is in the personal relationships forged by international civil servants and activists, positive and negative, biased and altruistic, short-sighted or visionary, that the "international" is to be found in the postwar international order.
List of contents
Introduction; 1. International lives: Britons at the UN Secretariat; 2. Global security, peacekeeping, and civilian aid; 3. Global social governance; 4. The dreamers: The world parliament movement; 5. An experiment in international cooperation: The Friends Ambulance Unit Postwar and International Service, 1946-1959; 6. The Movement for Colonial Freedom; Conclusion.
About the author
Daniel Gorman is Professor of History at University of Waterloo. He is the author of International Cooperation in the Early Twentieth Century (2017), The Emergence of International Society in the 1920s (2012), and Imperial Citizenship: Empire and the Question of Belonging (2007). He is the co-editor with Martin Gutmann of Before the SDGs: A Historical Companion to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2022).
Summary
Uniting Nations is a comparative study of the personal histories and interconnected lives and careers of the Britons who entered the international service after 1945. Drawing on research from archival collections, Daniel Gorman provides a distinctive human perspective on post-war international history and transnational voluntary networks.
Foreword
A study of the personal histories and interconnected lives and careers of the Britons who worked at the United Nations after 1945.
