The United Nations
First off may I rant just a little? STATES.... States? Member States? Why not Member Nations! Are these not Nations who seat their representatives in chairs in a large room with earpieces whilst a bank of translators repeat what the guy at the lecturn is saying? Yes they are. Where else do we find other than our blessed country, states? Rome or rather the Roman Empire. Remember CITYSTATES?
Ok nuff said here...
Taken from their website http://www.un.org/aboutun/history.htm
The name "United Nations", coined by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was first used in the "Declaration by United Nations" of 1 January 1942, during the Second World War, when representatives of 26 nations pledged their Governments to continue fighting together against the Axis Powers.
States first established international organizations to cooperate on specific matters. The International Telecommunication Union was founded in 1865 as the International Telegraph Union, and the Universal Postal Union was established in 1874. Both are now United Nations specialized agencies.
In 1899, the International Peace Conference was held in The Hague to elaborate instruments for settling crises peacefully, preventing wars and codifying rules of warfare. It adopted the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes and established the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which began work in 1902.
The forerunner of the United Nations was the League of Nations, an organization conceived in similar circumstances during the first World War, and established in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles "to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security." The International Labour Organization was also created under the Treaty of Versailles as an affiliated agency of the League. The League of Nations ceased its activities after failing to prevent the Second World War.
In 1945, representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco at the United Nations Conference on International Organization to draw up the United Nations Charter. Those delegates deliberated on the basis of proposals worked out by the representatives of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States at Dumbarton Oaks, United States in August-October 1944. The Charter was signed on 26 June 1945 by the representatives of the 50 countries. Poland, which was not represented at the Conference, signed it later and became one of the original 51 Member States.
The United Nations officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, when the Charter had been ratified by China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and by a majority of other signatories. United Nations Day is celebrated on 24 October each year.
Extracted from: Basic Facts About the United Nations 2000, Sales No. E.00.I.21.
ok but what are the roots of this organization? Does it just spring up ala Roosevelt and Churchill at the end WWII or was something else around before then? Yes there was just as there was a WWI before that. It was called the League Of Nations (LON) a intergovernmental organisation founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War, and was the precursor to the United Nations.
The League's primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing war through collective security and disarmament, and settling international disputes through negotiation andarbitration. Other issues in this and related treaties included labour conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human and drug trafficking, arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe.
The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift in thought from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and so depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to economic sanctions which the League ordered, or provide an army, when needed, for the League to use. However, these powers were often reluctant to do so. Sanctions could also hurt the League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them.
The onset of the Second World War showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to avoid any future world war. The United Nations replaced it after the end of the war and inherited a number of agencies and organisations founded by the League. It started with a idea. The concept of a peaceful community of nations had been outlined as far back as 1795, when Immanuel Kant’s Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch outlined the idea of a league of nations that would control conflict and promote peace between states. Kant argued for establishment of a peaceful world community not in a sense that there be a global government but in the hope that each state would declare itself as a free state that respects its citizens and welcomes foreign visitors as fellow rational beings. It is in this rationalization that a union of free states would promote peaceful society worldwide. The forerunner of the League of Nations, the Inter-Parliamentary Union ((IPU) It was the first permanent forum for political multilateral negotiations. Initially, the organization was for individual parliamentarians (parliament members), but has since transformed into an international organization of the parliaments of sovereign states. The national parliaments of 157 countries are members of the IPU, and nine regional parliamentary assemblies are associate members. The IPU has permanent observer status at the United Nations.), was formed by peace activists William Randal Cremer andFrederic Passy in 1889. The organisation was international in scope, with a third of the members of parliament (in the 24 countries with parliaments) serving as members of the IPU by 1914. Its aims were to encourage governments to solve international disputes by peaceful means and arbitration and annual conferences were held to help governments refine the process of international arbitration. Its structure consisted of a Council headed by a President which would later be reflected in the structure of the League. Woodrow Wilson te man who gave us so many inovation in his presidency together with Colonel House put this League together hammering out various details. Ironically when it all became a reality Wilson refused to join.While the First World War was still underway, a number of governments and groups had already started developing plans to change the way international relations were carried out in order to prevent a repetition of the war. United States President Woodrow Wilson and his adviser Colonel Edward M. House enthusiastically promoted the idea of the League as a means of avoiding any repetition of the bloodshed seen in the First World War, and the creation of the League was a centrepiece of Wilson's Fourteen Points for Peace. Specifically the final point provided: "A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike."
Before drafting the specific terms of his peace deal, Wilson recruited a team led by Colonel House to compile whatever information deemed pertinent in assessing Europe’s geo-political situation. In early January 1918, Wilson summoned House to Washington and the two began hammering out, in complete secrecy, the President’s first address on the League of Nations, which was delivered to Congress on 8 January 1918. Wilson's final plans for the League were strongly influenced by the South African Prime Minister, Jan Christiaan Smuts, who in 1918 had published a treatise entitled The League of Nations: A Practical Suggestion. According to F.S. Crafford, Wilson adopted "both the ideas and the style" of Smuts.
On 8 July 1919, Woodrow Wilson returned to the United States and embarked on a nation-wide campaign to secure the support of the American people for their country’s entry into the League. On 10 July, Wilson addressed the Senate declaring that "a new role and a new responsibility have come to this great nation that we honour and which we would all wish to lift to yet higher levels of service and achievement". Positive reception, particularly from Republicans, was scarce at best.
Wilson seems to be the man who wasnt really presidential material and was apparently endorsed heavily by Roosevelt. House on the other hand was in the meeting that set the ground work for the CFR, he kept his opinions to himself but it appears he had a take charge attitude. Col. House was alledgely 33rd degree mason along with Fanklin D Roosevelt. I smell a set up and Wilson was apparently a patsy who had ruthless agendas.
Now the UN does have its own website and from it I get this:
This sounds alright doesnt it? Help the Member States play nice?
But we have seen this sort of thing before in the Original Roman Empire. They ruled their known world and the members of the Empire were known as City States. So there is credence to the hue and cry of revival of Rome all over again.
However in doing the back ground for this page I stumbled on something I did not know and wonder how many others around me do not know. There are TWO Roman Empires. The one before Jesus that was in Palestine out of the area of Italy. The other seems to be in the middle ages, possibly connected to the Catholic Church. In this second Empire we see what might be rudimentary allignments of old Kings and their communities or rather of Chiefs and the tribes or clans. Into this we might inject some of the DaVinci Code mess. But it is the concept of united and blurred lines of sovereigncy that is at issue. Inside the UN building Nations are mere States. They are UNITED meaning no intentional sovereigncy. This goes against the removal of ancient boundaries. Nations are raised to created boundaries so that a certain law never goes into effect. Herein may lay the deepest crux of all. Back in the day of the Tower of Babel God Himself came down and confounded the languages thus creating people groups that are diverse in language and in time in culture. Language defines thought and thought is definitively expressed in language. God's problem that caused Him to do this drastic step was the thought that once united and of ONE MIND "Nothing would be impossible for "them"" (Gen 11:5) Them being humanity. If man can do all things of his own fortitude and ingineuity what pray tell does he need God for? Has he not then become a god in his own right? (Wait stop throwing those sharp stones the hosting site wont appreciate it!) I am NOT being heretical here I am being logical and so was God. You read it and you see Genesis 11:1-9.
The Greeks did it the Celtic tribes sort of tried to do it the Romans did it and the Medievil Kings tried to form the alliances to do it. But God has found ways at each and every turn to squelch it. One people under anything or anyone but Himself!
The United Nations is doing it again and thus all those bible thumpers may well be right... the UN is a revival of that old Roman Empire.
On the CFR page the rhetoric of a certain address at a certain meeting has a lot to say about the thinking of the people behind the UN.