国際連盟からの機能的国際協調の継承と発展

戦後初期ユニセフによる対日救援活動からの一考察

抄録

When the establishment of the United Nations (UN) was planed in 1945, the following two points were taken in as the experiences of the League of Nations (LN): First, the authority of great powers in the maintenance of international security was widely recognized, and second, international cooperation in the economic and, social and humanitarian works were promoted. This article examines, through UNICEF's relief activities towards Japan, how the UN social and humanitarian works, which were founded on the LN's experiences, have developed its role as an international functional cooperation.
The meanings of UNICEF's activities can be summarized as follows: Firstly, its activities carried the American cold war policies on its shoulder. As the cold war raged, UNICEF's activities were convenient for the American policy that aimed at Japanese incorporation in the Western bloc, and the promotion of Japanese reconstruction. Secondly, UNICEF's practical activities were accomplished almost neutrally and independently, although they were much incorporated in the international movement as mentioned above. This was the harvest of the system change, which occurred in the transition era from the LN to the UN. Thirdly, a close relationship has been established between UNICEF and Japan, by American encouragement, through the relief plan, Japanese participation in UNICEF's relief plans for Korea, and so on, which has played a role in Japanese postwar diplomacy. That is, UNICEF's activities ensured the continuance of its role as an international functional cooperation in spite of its involvement in international political movements.
The international social and humanitarian works, which were behind the political and military problems in the LN, have changed their stance to the main and independent actor. Owing to this change of stance, UNICEF has come to engage in activities corresponding to the local needs, and the opportunities of dialogue and trust, which were made through its activities, gave birth to not only technical harvests but also international functional cooperation.
If we keep these trends in the macroscopic international history, including the LN, we find three important turning points: (1) the germs of the UN system were already grown in the end of the LN; (2) these germs were taken into the establishment of the UN, at which time, the middle and smaller powers promoted these movements; and (3) many UN special agencies, which have succeeded the LN's heritage in talents and techniques, were founded under the UN through War-time relief activities. The history in which the international social and humanitarian works have improved its role as an international functional cooperation is, simultaneously, the history in which international security has come to be secured by diversified measures including the promotion of international cooperation. In this trend, the transition from the LN to the UN was the pivot period.