It is becoming increasingly evident that the existence together, in a diminishing world, of rich nations and very poor nations, is the critical problem of our time; and indeed other questions of international relations are rapidly taking on the appearance of being merely aspects of this central crux. According to some authorities it may only be a matter of a few years before the food and population question takes on such alarming proportions as to make our present troubles on the international scene seem slight by comparison. It is only against this background that we can fully appreciate the significance of the United Nations institutions and procedures for the mediation of aid, whether financial or technical, to developing coun tries; and indeed also for the flow of credit and skills between countries generally, for few nations or none belong wholly to one side in this matter, and the whole question is one that vitally affects the immediate futures of every one of the members of the international community.

Key resolutions from the first fifty years of the United Nations General Assembly.

The official monthly record of United States foreign policy.

Originally published in 1988. Bringing the world close to universal literacy will be a major legacy of the twentieth century. But the rapid and widespread developments in education that have enabled this to happen have not taken place in a social and political vacuum. In some instances conditions conducive to mass literacy have only come about through popular revolution or rapid economic development, but a less spectacular and frequently less tangible role has been played by a number of international agencies. The most prominent of these is Unesco, which has had the goal of global literacy at the heart of its endeavours ever since its foundation in 1946. Agreement on the best means of achieving this goal, however, has been very difficult to come by, and Unesco's literacy program has been shaped by internal and external politics as well as by local exigencies. This book outlines how Unesco's literacy program has evolved, and by discussing how idealistic aims and intentions have been given shape and direction by more immediate political and bureaucratic concerns provides a critique, in miniature, of the post-war history of the United Nations and related organisations.