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Article Excerpt
This article examines the emergence of the so-called Western European and Others Group as well as that of the caucus of European Communities at the General Assembly of the United Nations based on a study of documents from Nordic foreign ministries in the period 1945 to 1975. It shows that the global entanglement of Western Europe both stimulated and inhibited the development of closer subcontinental collaboration during the Cold War, and it demonstrates that a European core was necessary for facilitating common political action. The hesitant and reactive evolution of Western European collaboration at the United Nations, the arbitrariness of its geographical scope, and the alienation of its members provide a key to understanding European identity in the second half of the twentieth century. Keywords: United Nations, bloc politics, Western Europe, foreign policy, identity
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Familiarity with the European Union makes it easy to forget that the concept of Europe is highly contingent and that it takes different shapes in different settings. A striking, albeit little-known example lends itself well to illustrate this premise: On the world floor of the United Nations, the existence of the two separate groups--the so-called Group of Eastern European States (EES) and the Western European and Others Group (WEOG)--continues to have significance for regional representation in United Nations organs two decades after the end of the Cold War.
While the division at macro level is clearly obsolete, not least in view of the development of close collaboration of the countries belonging to the European Union in all matters concerning the United Nations, (1) enthusiasm for a revision is lacking. The reason for maintaining this seemingly blatant contradiction lies in a more complex underbelly: Any change in the key of representation would certainly diminish the political representation of the European states in United Nations organs. (2) Thus, former Soviet republics wishing to join the Western electoral group have been rejected. After a maverick spell and hope for admission to the Western European and Others Group, even Estonia has now joined the Eastern European Group. This step was taken as late as May 2004, parallel to the country's accession to the European Union. The ongoing participation of Cyprus in the Asian Group is worth noting among other political anomalies of regional politics in the United Nations.
This article examines the emergence and early development of the WEOG as well as that of the caucus of European Communities (EC). Based on a study of documents from Nordic foreign ministries, it challenges a pioneer study from 1960 on bloc politics in the United Nations that claims, "The states in the Western European geographical distribution group have been 'lumped' together, so to speak, in a strange collection of members which it would not be very productive to examine."
This grouping is in contrast to the potentially more rewarding study on the consultation of members of the European Communities. (3) This article assumes the very opposite; namely, that the hesitant and reactive evolution of this group, the arbitrariness of its geographical scope, and the alienation of its members provide a key to understanding European identity in the second half of the twentieth century. While it demonstrates the potential for a globalizing Europe as a community of values that eventually transforms most of the countries within its scope and transcends imagined geographical borders, this understanding also shows that a European core was necessary for facilitating common political action. Thus, the history of Western European cooperation in the United Nations facilitates a better understanding of the contingency of the construction of Europe, which frequently leads to European communities not conforming to geographical definitions.
The following survey starts by sketching the legal parameters of Western European representation in the United Nations. It then gives a chronological account of the attempts to enhance the cooperation of what can be categorized as more or less Western European states, of Western European and other states, and of the members of the European Communities for the period 1945 to 1975. The conclusion of the survey underlines the global entanglement of Western Europe, which both stimulated and inhibited the development of closer subcontinental collaboration during the Cold War.
Agreements of Gentlemen and Lesser Gentlemen on Regional Groups
Although some regional groups did exist in the League of Nations, preparations for the United Nations Organization hardly anticipated groupings of states. Article 23 of the charter merely says that "equitable geographical distribution" was a factor to be considered in the election of nonpermanent members to the Security Council. However, once the first session of the General Assembly (GA) met in London in early 1946, it became clear that the distribution of nonpermanent seats on the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Trusteeship Council, and on the General Committee required a concrete resolution. The problem was settled in backstage negotiations with an unwritten "gentlemen's agreement" during the same session. According to this agreement, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the British Commonwealth were to be recognized as specific groups. The agreement was framed as a matter of geographical representation, but in reality implied recognition of political-interest groups of the time. Attachment of political affiliation was particularly obvious in the case of the worldwide British Commonwealth, which extended from New Zealand to India and all the way to Canada. (4)
Apart from the Big Five, the only founding members of the United Nations not belonging to one of the recognized groups were Ethiopia, Liberia, and the Philippines. As new countries gained accession to the United Nations, the number of disfranchised members slowly increased, putting pressure on the practiced order. At the same time, the emerging Cold War made political and geographical challenges to the "gentlemen's agreement" seem rewarding. India ran against Ukraine in elections for the Security Council already in 1947, but withdrew its candidacy after eleven ballots had failed to produce a decision. (5) In the 1950s, the following countries were chosen to fill the Eastern European seat in the Security Council: Yugoslavia (after its break with the Soviet Union), Greece, Turkey (previously having represented the Middle East), the Philippines, and Japan. In practice, the former Eastern European seat was recast into a seat shared by Eastern Europe and Asia. It is worth noting that despite the ongoing Cold War, this development was rejected even by Western European governments. They simply disliked the idea of vacating "a seat that belongs to Europe." (6) In 1961, at a time when Turkey represented Eastern Europe in the Security Council for the second time, even the Western European seat was assigned to the African state of Liberia for a reduced, one-year term. African representation in the Security Council was continued by giving the Commonwealth seat to Ghana in 1962 and to the Ivory Coast--a non-Commonwealth state--in 1964.
By that time, the old system had ceased to function, and a new regional formula was necessary. New categories for regional representation had already been introduced in a resolution adopted by the General Assembly in 1957, the first legal document by the United Nations to take note of particular regional groupings. The resolution fixed the composition of the General Committee of the General Assembly, a body comprised of the president of the General Assembly, the president's thirteen vice presidents, and the chairmen of the seven main committees. It confirmed "the practice established with regard to the distribution of the chairmanships of the Main Committees, namely, two from Latin America [sic] States, two from Asian and African States, two from Western European and other States, and one from an Eastern European State."
Moreover, an annex to the resolution specified each group's right to a given number of vice presidencies. The agreement reduced the Commonwealth to a subsidiary category. In addition to the fixed British vice presidency, it was ruled that either the president, one of the vice presidents, or one of the main committee chairmen was to come from a Commonwealth country, without otherwise altering the geographical distribution of seats. In this connection it was made clear that the regulation was to affect either the group of Asian and African states or the group of Western European and other states. (7) The resolution was pushed through by the united caucus groups of Asian-African, Socialist, and Latin American states, with the category of Western European and other states created against the wishes of the very groups involved; that is, "Western Europeans" and "Others." In the minds of those who drafted...
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