United Nations Special Committee Research Articles

The Mood Types Analysis in Script of Nelson Mandela’s Speech at the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid

Nelson Mandela's impactful speeches at the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid have drawn considerable attention due to his global influence and eloquence in English. This study examines the mood types present in Mandela's speeches, focusing on their role within the interpersonal metafunction. Utilising a qualitative descriptive method, the researcher analysed a speech delivered by Mandela, sourcing data from a public address archived on the American Rhetoric website. The analysis involved labelling clause elements, segmenting clauses into mood and residue, and classifying mood types. The findings revealed that the distribution of mood types in Mandela's speech was as follows: Declarative accounted for 62%, Imperative for 19%, and Interrogative for 19%. Results showed a predominance of Declarative mood, indicating Mandela's emphasis on providing information and asserting historical events. Imperative mood was utilised for calls to action, while Interrogative mood prompted audience engagement. This research sheds light on Mandela's rhetorical strategies and the significance of mood types in his speeches.

Foundations of a geopolitical entity - the Gaza Strip 1947–1950

The Gaza Strip is a territory of 365 square kilometres located in the southern coastal plain of Palestine. Distinguished by a long, narrow spatial form and named after its main metropolis, the city of Gaza, it forms a political entity whose formal status has not been determined since its formation in the 1948 War. The aim of this article is to explore the circumstances in which the Gaza Strip was formed as an allegedly provisional geopolitical entity that has survived for over 70 years. It will concentrate on the formative period between the allocation of British Mandate Palestine’s southern coastal strip to a prospective Arab state by the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) in September 1947 and the signing in February 1950 of the Modus Vivendi agreement between Egypt and Israel that had finally delineated an armistice line that forms Gaza Strip’s boundary with Israel until recently.

Haderech lekaf-tet b'November: Parashat UNSCOP vereshit meoravuto shel ha'um basichsuch ha'Aravi-Israeli (The road to partition: UNSCOP and the beginning of United Nations involvement in the Israel-Arab conflict)

Haderech lekaf-tet b'November: Parashat UNSCOP vereshit meoravuto shel ha'um basichsuch ha'Aravi-Israeli (The road to partition: UNSCOP and the beginning of United Nations involvement in the Israel-Arab conflict)

الأمم المتحدة ومشکلات الصراع على مناطق النفوذ مطلع الحرب الباردة المسألة الیونانیة أنموذجًا.

يعرض البحث للصراع الذي دار داخل الأمم المتحدة مطلع الحرب الباردة بين المعسکر الغربي بزعامة الولايات المتحدة الأمريکية والمعسکر الشرقي بزعامة الاتحاد السوفيتي حول اليونان، فيما سمي بـ وذلک من خلال محاور عدة تناولها أولا مجلس الأمن في محاولة للوصول إلى حل، وهي: اعتراض الاتحاد السوفيتي ودول الکتلة الشرقية التي تدور في فلکه على مسألة استمرار وجود القوات البريطانية في اليونان بعد انتهاء الحرب العالمية الثانية، وشکوى أوکرانيا ضد اليونان بسبب ما يقع من حوادث على حدود الأخيرة مع ألبانيا، وشکوى اليونان ضد جيرانها الشماليين (ألبانيا وبلغاريا ويوجسلافيا)، واعتراض دول الکتلة الشرقية على المعونة الأمريکية لليونان (مبدأ ترومان Truman)، والمجلس وتواصله مع لجنة التحقيق التي کان قد بعث بها إلى البلقان. وأمام عدم توصل مجلس الأمن إلى حل للمسألة في ظل وقوف الولايات المتحدة بما لها من أغلبية بداخله تؤيدها ضد أي طرح کانت لا تراه يتماشى مع مصالحها، واستخدام الاتحاد السوفيتي على الجانب الآخر لـ حق النقض لمنع تلک الأغلبية من استصدار أية قرارات کان يستشعر فيها عدم تحقيقها لرغباته أو تقييدها لتطلعاته، کان قرار المجلس في النهاية بإحالة المسألة إلى الجمعية العامة، ورفعها بالتالي من جدول أعماله. ويتناول البحث تفاصيل ما جرى بالجمعية العامة من جولة جديدة من الصراع بين المعسکرين الغربي والشرقي، والتي انتهت لصالح المعسکر الغربي، بقرار الجمعية العامة في 21 أکتوبر 1947 باعتماد تقرير لجنتها الأولى – اللجنة السياسية- التي کانت قد أحالت إليها المسألة لدراستها وتقديم تقرير عنها، لتتشکل بناء على ذلک اللجنة التي عرفت بلجنة الأمم المتحدة الخاصة بالبلقان بهدف مواصلة عمل لجنة التحقيق بشأن حوادث حدود اليونان ومحاولة إيجاد حل للمسألة. الکلمات المفتاحية: المسألة اليونانية، مجلس الأمن، الجمعية العامة، الولايات المتحدة الأمريکية، الاتحاد السوفيتي، حوادث الحدود، القوات البريطانية، السلام والأمن الدوليين، لجنة التحقيق. The United Nation and the crises of the struggle for spheres of influence at the beginning of the Cold War The question as a model Mustafa al-Gharib Muhammad. Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, Faculty of Arts, Benha University, Egypt. Email: mostafa.elkaser@fart.bu.edu.eg Abstract: The current study tackles the conflict that took place within the United Nations at the beginning of the Cold War between the Western bloc led by the United States of America and the Eastern bloc led by the Soviet Union about Greece, or what was called the Greek question. The research presents this conflict through dealing with several axes dealt with by the Security Council in an attempt to reach a solution. These axes are the objection of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries of the Eastern bloc to the continued presence of British forces in Greece after the end of World War II, Ukraine's complaint against Greece due to incidents occurring on the latter's borders with Albania, and Greece’s complaint against its northern neighbors (Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia), the objection of the Eastern Bloc countries to US aid to Greece (the Truman Doctrine), and the Council and its communication with the investigation committee that it had sent to the Balkans. Also, as the Security Council failed to reach a solution to the issue in light of the United States’ opposition, with its majority in it supporting it, to any proposal against its interests, as well as the Soviet Union’s use of the veto right on the other side to prevent the majority from issuing any decisions against its interests, the decision of the Council was in the end to refer the issue to the General Assembly, and subsequently dismissed it. The research deals in details with the new round of conflict between the Western and Eastern blocs within the General Assembly. The conflict ended in favor of the Western bloc, as on October 21, 1947 the General Assembly approved the report of its first committee - the political committee - which the question had been referred to in order to study it and submit a report on it. Accordingly, the committee, known as the United Nations Special Committee on the Balkans, was formed to continue the work of the investigation committee on the incidents on the borders of Greece and try to find a solution to the issue. Keywords: The question, Security Council, General Assembly, United States of America, Soviet Union, Border accidents, British troops, International peace and security, Investigation Committee.

Ideological Aggression and International Law: Soviet and Russian Malign Influence within Legal Domains (MILDs)

This article offers a trans-disciplinary legal analysis of the evolution of aggression under international law. It asserts Soviet leadership in the establishment of the definition, but notes that some proposed conceptions of the Soviet theory were not officially adopted. This research also analyzes the 2019 work of Doctor Chernichenko of the Russian Federation and his assertion that the Soviet notion of ideological aggression should be resurrected given the unique and propagandistic tendencies of 21st century interstate conflict. Ideological aggression was originally a Soviet proposal first introduced to the United Nations Special Committee on the Question of Defining Aggression in 1953. This study asserts that any attempt to implement such a concept will be dangerous and particularly damaging to the rule of law, both domestically and internationally. Such a concept will offer practitioners a method to avoid responsibility for international transgression by claiming, inter alia, primacy in the employment of ideological aggression. This concept will also offer justification in the dismantling of coveted principles such as freedom of the press and freedom of speech. Those who employ such tactics do so duplicitously; simultaneously cherishing and subverting the international norms and principles that the greater international community holds dear. Finally, it will offer the practitioners of Malign Legal Operations, also known colloquially as lawfare, yet another instrument with which they may contain and exploit competitors under the auspices of international law. This amounts to Malign Influence within Legal Domains (MILDs), which is the ultimate form of asymmetry. The motives behind such a proposal to resurrect ideological aggression must be dually understood before any discourse surrounding ideological aggression may proceed in a serious manner.Manuscript received 03.06.2020

At Least Something: The UN Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary, 1957–1958

Abstract In late 1956, the United Nations (UN) faced a remarkable test, as the Soviet Union invaded and crushed a burgeoning rebellion in Hungary, then a Soviet satellite. After the Soviet Union disregarded repeated UN calls to withdraw, the UN General Assembly established, in January 1957, a Commission of Inquiry (COI) to investigate the crisis. This article explores the forgotten story of the Special Committee on Hungary as a case study for the effects of COIs. This commission is of special interest for several reasons. Namely, it was one of the first mandated by a UN body to investigate a specific conflict, not least a Cold War struggle, in which a superpower was directly involved. Furthermore, it was clear from the beginning that the Committee was not likely to compel, in itself, the Soviet Union to change its behaviour. Moreover, 1956 was a time of global political transformation, as the non-aligned movement emerged as a key player in UN politics and, accordingly, became a target in the Cold War battle for influence. Under such circumstances, the effects of COIs are complex and difficult to gauge. While the Committee did not lead to the Soviet Union’s withdrawal from Hungary, it had many unforeseen and conflicting effects. These are grouped into two categories – effects relating mainly to times of ideological conflict and political transformation and effects that relate to parallel multilateral efforts and institutional dynamics. Among other effects, the article demonstrates how, under such political circumstances, COIs can create new points of contention and cause backlash precisely from those that they seek to influence. Having cascading and conflicting effects, the central conclusion is that COIs do not lend themselves easily to clean and linear theories. Recognition of the field’s inherent complexity is therefore needed in any attempt to study this international phenomenon.

Canada’s Growing Interest in the Far Away West Asia

West Asian region is known for the presence of the Arab oil-rich countries. In the post-Second World War, Arab–Israeli conflict was one of the major international issues of the world. This Arab–Israel region of the West Asia was under the British control. Britain failed to handle the conflict and handed it over to the newly formed United Nations (UN) and through the UN mediation, the state of Israel was created in 1948. All the major powers of the world got involved in one way or other in the process of creation of the state of Israel in the midst of the Arab countries. Canada as a member of the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) became involved in the West Asian region. In the post-Second World War period, Canada had virtually no commercial or strategic interests in any countries of the region. Now Canada works closely with its network of diplomatic missions across the region to promote and defend Canadian values and interests and strengthen development and trade cooperation with a range of government, private sector and civil society partners, as well as regional organizations. The West Asian region—the Arab countries and Israel—is one of the areas where merchandise trade as well as arms trade is a significant area of interest of Canada. This article discusses Canada’s involvement in West Asia since the creation of the state of Israel. Canada supported Israel and their relations are multifaceted and have been enhanced in recent years through increased cooperation in several areas, including arms trade, investment and innovation. Canada has also many trade agreements including the arms trade to West Asian Arab countries. This article shows various issues of Canada and West Asia trade relations, particularly arms trade with Israel and other West Asia Arab countries, which has more of a political orientation rather than an economic one.

The success of the Zionist strategy vis-à-vis UNSCOP

The article examines the successful political strategies employed by Zionist diplomacy in the summer of 1947 vis-à-vis UNSCOP (the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine). The committee's recommendation of partition and the creation of a Jewish state on the majority of the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River served as the basis for the UN partition resolution of 29 November 1947.The Zionist leaders made UNSCOP aware of their willingness to accept partition, but conditioned this on enlarging the territory of the future state. In this regard, the climax of their campaign, recounted in the article, was a secret and informal meeting between the senior echelons of the Jewish Agency and most members of UNSCOP on 14 July, an event that has been missed by historical research. The article describes the crucial influence of the Zionist message when UNSCOP came to formulate its conclusions and contributes to a better understanding of the process that led UNSCOP to its final recommendations.

Israel and the Family of Nations: The Jewish Nation-State and Human Rights

Introduction 1. establishment of - UN debates in 1947 1.1 Israel's Declaration of Independence 1.2 UNSCOP (United Nations Special Committee on Palestine) report 1.3 Partition debate in UN General Assembly 1.4 dilemmas of right of national self-determination 1.5 historic right and historic connection 1.6 An alien body in Arab Middle East 1.7 validity of principle of partition 2. Two arguments: Zionist colonialism and invention of national identity 2.1 Colonialism and imperialist support 2.2 The hope of two thousand years? Modern identity and question of historical continuity 3. Zionism and international norms 3.1 Everything goes back to Herzl 3.2 question of Arabs' rights in Zionist thought 4. and Israeli 4.1 The state in Israeli discourse 4.2 and rights of Arab minority 4.3 Arabs in Israel as a national minority 4.4 The state, the of Jews, the of people 5. Either or democratic? 5.1 Jewish and democratic state - oxymoron? 5.2 Law of Return and international norms of equality 5.3 and of all its citizens 5.4 The Jewish-Israeli people and right of self-determination 5.5 Israel and Diaspora - a national or an connection? 5.6 The Israeli people - a national identity common to all citizens of state? 5.7 post-national state 6. The of state and democratic nation-state 6.1 principle of and various types of democratic regimes 6.2 Partition and neutrality 6.3 principle of neutrality, Law of Return and problem of Palestinian refugees 6.4 Two examples of partition: India and Ireland 6.5 Imperial nations - Britain and Spain 6.6 Composite identities, national identity and citizenship 7. Ethnic democracy, ethnic nationalism, civic 7.1 Ethnic democracy - Prof. Sami Samocha's model 7.2 Civic nationalism and cultural homogeneity - French model 7.3 Civic nationalism - US and other examples 7.4 Second-rate democracy? Epilogue: No other country Appendix A: Excerpts from constitutions of contemporary democratic countries Appendix B: Nansen's speech before League of Nations on need to support repatriation of Armenians to Armenian Soviet Republic

France and the Partition Plan: 1947–1948

France and the Partition Plan: 1947–1948

On the Myth of the Connection Between the Holocaust and the Creation of Israel

On the Myth of the Connection Between the Holocaust and the Creation of Israel

Ralph Bunche and the Establishment of Israel

Ralph Bunche and the Establishment of Israel

Postcolonial Theory and the History of Zionism

For the historian whose academic-scientific discipline aims to attain particularizing rather than generalizing forms of knowledge, theory—any theory—serves not as an end in itself, but rather as a ...

The United Nations Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations: From 1965 to 2005

The United Nations Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations: From 1965 to 2005

A Good International Citizen: H.V. Evatt, Britain, the United Nations and Israel, 1948-49

Dr H.V. Evatt, Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs in the Chifley Labor government, presided over Australian foreign policy at a critical juncture in the history of his nation, the British Empire and international relations. Assertion of distinctively Australian interests coincided with the evolution of the Empire into a Commonwealth of Nations, the emergence of the Cold War, and the development of a world body and an international jurisprudence aimed at preventing a recurrence of global conflict. Personally active in framing the United Nations Charter at the San Francisco Conference in 1945 and a recognized champion of the smaller powers, Evatt was intimately involved in a number of initiatives within the United Nations in the post-war years, some of only indirect Australian concern. Palestine was one of these. Evatt's role in the adoption of the proposal in 1947 to partition the British Mandate of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states with an internationalized zone for Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the Holy Places, has been analysed elsewhere. Some measure of disagreement has been evident amongst scholars, but it is generally accepted today that Evatt piloted partition through the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question, which he chaired. The Ad Hoc Committee, representing all United Nations member states, was formed to consider the findings of the investigative United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) which had by a majority recommended partition. Seven of its eleven members had produced a report in favour of partition; three had produced another in favour of a federal state with minority safeguards for the Jews. Only one member Australia, represented by John Hood and Sam Atyeo had abstained from making any recommendation, but Evatt's desire to appear neutral ahead of the 1947 vote for the presidency of the United Nations General Assembly goes far to explain his ambiguous behaviour in this period. Having lost that vote and being elected to chair the Ad Hoc

Israeli policy on Jerusalem at the United Nations, 1948

The 1947 proposal for the internationalization of Jerusalem, as an essential part of the General Assembly's partition plan, was accepted by the Jewish Agency (the representative body of the Jewish community of Palestine) only with extreme reluctance.' Jerusalem had had a Jewish majority since 1860, and in 1947 its Jewish population numbered 100,000, as against a combined Muslim-Christian population of 65,000. Fully onesixth of the population of the proposed Jewish state of 600,000 would thus reside in Jerusalem.2 Detachment of Jerusalem would diminish severely the Jewish demographic component of the Jewish state. No less critical was the significance of Jerusalem as a symbol of the revival of Jewish sovereignty. Jerusalem had served as the heart and capital of ancient Judea, and the restoration of Jewish statehood without Jerusalem would deprive the new Jewish state of a focal link with its national past. Failure to include Jerusalem would place in question the very meaning of the national future of the state. Little wonder then that representatives of the Jewish Agency in their appearances before UNSCOP (United Nations Special Committee on Palestine) and the various committees of the General Assembly argued vigorously for the retention of Jewish Jerusalem in the proposed Jewish state. If they acquiesced in the scheme for the territorial internationalization of Jerusalem, they did so only because they felt this was an 'inescapable condition for the immediate reestablishment of the Jewish State'.3 In the words of Ben-Gurion, 'it was the price to be paid for statehood'.4 The religious-political considerations which dictated this concession were explained by Moshe Sharett, head of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency:

Truman, Palestine and the cold war

There are certain difficulties in this reconstruction of Truman's policy on Palestine in the months leading up to Israeli independence. For one thing, it fails to take proper account of the Cold War setting in which the policy was first framed and then re-shaped. Although Truman had long favored increased Jewish immigration to Palestine while the region was under the British mandate, he had been careful to subordinate demands for statehood to geopolitical considerations extending far beyond Palestine's borders.4 The United States was slow to embrace Whitehall's call for a United Nations' finding on Palestine for fear such consideration would greatly complicate the administration's aid program to Greece and Turkey.5 The administration's reticence continued throughout the summer of 1947. While the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine considered the future status of the region, Truman scrupulously avoided advocating partition fearing that it would lead to Soviet gains in the Eastern Mediterranean.6 Even after the United States announced its support for a partition plan approved by a two-thirds majority in the United Nations, the Truman administration abandoned the scheme when it appeared that enforcement would introduce Soviet troops to the region.7 If Truman had been the pawn of Jewish political pressure in advance of the UN's 29 November 1947 vote

International intervention in the Greek Civil War: the United Nations Special Committee on the Balkans, 1947-1952

International intervention in the Greek Civil War: the United Nations Special Committee on the Balkans, 1947-1952

Racism's Last Word

Translator's Note.-Racism's Last Word is a translation of Le Dernier Mot du racisme, which was written for the catalog of the exhibition Art contre/against Apartheid. The exhibition was assembled by the Association of Artists of the World against Apartheid, headed by Antonio Saura and Ernest Pignon-Ernest, in cooperation with the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid. Eightyfive of the world's most celebrated artists contributed paintings and sculpture to the exhibition, which opened in Paris in November 1983. In addition, a number of writers and scholars were invited to contribute texts for the catalog. Le Dernier Mot du racisme serves in particular to introduce the project of the itinerant exhibition, which the organizers described briefly in their preface to the catalog:

Report of United Nations special committee on geographical disadvantage—comprehensive proposal for accommodation of geographically disadvantaged countries

Report of United Nations special committee on geographical disadvantage—comprehensive proposal for accommodation of geographically disadvantaged countries