The Dumbarton Oaks Conversations and the United Nations, 1944–1994
The Dumbarton Oaks Conversations and the United Nations, 1944–1994
By: Angeliki E. Laiou, Ernest R. May
In this volume, a reissue of the proceedings of a conference held at Dumbarton Oaks in 1994, the contributors examine the role that the 1944 talks at Dumbarton Oaks had on the formation of the United Nations, and a number of issues that still have relevance to the role of the United Nations today: human rights, collective economic sanctions, peacekeeping operations, and the evolution of the role of the secretary general.
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In 1944, as the end of World War II approached, an important series of talks were held to plan the formation of postwar international institutions. The site for the conversations was Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., a research institute administered by Harvard University. The meetings, which included debates on a variety of issues, were a first step toward the creation of the United Nations, whose establishment followed some months after the end of the conversations.
In 1994, the “Dumbarton Oaks Conference, 1944–1994” brought together scholars and policymakers who had studied international organizations or had played important roles in them. A quarter century later, the world has evolved in ways that would have been unimaginable to many attendees of either the original conversations or the conference. This reissue of the conference proceedings, ahead of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations in the fall of 2020, may assist readers who wish to familiarize themselves with the conditions that motivated the meetings in 1944.
Angeliki E. Laiou
Angeliki E. Laiou (1941–2008) was Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Byzantine History at Harvard University and Director of Dumbarton Oaks. She specialized in the history of l3yzantium and modern Greece.
Ernest R. May
Ernest R. May (1928–2009), an authority on the history of international relations, was Charles Warren Professor of History at Harvard University. He also directed the Intelligence Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government.