Miscellaneous

The History of the United Nations

The History of the United Nations

“Who will lead mankind to peace?” The question has been asked for thousands of years by thousands of people only to remain unanswered. Nations have warred against nations; men have imprisoned, enslaved, crucified and exterminated other men hoping to bring about a lasting peace. What we need if peace is to be had is more men who have a desire to learn the lessons of history and then use that knowledge to see that the evils of history are not repeated. One such man is Alexander Djerassi.

Djerassi is a lawyer, a diplomat, an entrepreneur, and a political activist who has made a career out of building bridges across the great divide of human differences. A magna cum laude graduate from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and the recipient of a law degree from Yale Law School, Djerassi is a young man with an impressive resume who has made his mission in life to help mankind overcome the devastation of human cruelty. He is personally acquainted with the grief this devastation has brought. Both of his grandfathers were forced to leave Europe in the face of Nazi invasions and antisemitism. His French Huguenot grandmother faced religious persecution because of her faith. Affected firsthand by the kind of hatred that destroys nations, it is no wonder that he developed a passion for public service. After graduating and receiving his degrees he didn’t go to Wall Street to find fortune and fame, he instead went with his grandmother to Holocaust survivors and worked to make sure that their stories would not be forgotten.

On a grander scale, The United Nations has also sought to bring about peace. When World War II ended in 1945 the nations of Europe were in ruin, and the world as we knew it understood that we could not endure another world war. A way had to be found to make and keep peace, or we all would perish. Out of that desire the United Nations, an international organization founded by fifty-one countries came together around this mandate: to promote human rights; to encourage compliance to international standards; and to improve the standard of living for the people of the world.

World leaders had been searching for a way to come together peacefully for the good of all way before 1945. The League of Nations, the United Nations predecessor, was established after World War I. It too had as its mission promoting international cooperation to achieve world wide peace and security. Unfortunately those goals were not realized. The London Declaration and the Atlantic Charter were a part of the conferences and declarations the allies of World War II agreed upon as they searched for world peace.
In the difficult and volatile times that we live in today, Alexander Djerassi believes that the United Nations is still a presence in the midst of global strife and tension. Now the body is made up of over 193 nations, but it still remains true to its four purposes: to maintain international peace and security; to develop friendly relations among nations; to achieve international cooperation in solving international problems; and to be a place for harmonizing the actions of nations to solve economic, social, cultural or humanitarian world problems.