Expat Yank: Our Global Supreme Court

In a post on what the United Nations is and what it isn't (according to its own charter), Robert at Expat Yank has this story:

...In the early 1990s, I was at a university event in New York that invited Dag Hammarskjold's biographer, his former assistant Sir Brian Urquhart, to speak about the UN's place in the world. (I recommend Sir Brian's book; it's excellent. But I digress.) He was engaging, bright, articulate and witty -- none of which, of course, was unexpected.

Yet a day or so prior to the event, word got 'round that a group of nincompoops were going to protest his appearance because he was British -- and therefore must have been supportive of a divided Ireland. That Sir Brian had had zero to do with British policy in Northern Ireland was irrelevant to the nincompoops, who appeared and stood in the back and challenged him during the Q & A at the end. He addressed them directly, explained his role, and the UN's role, and made them look foolish.

To me, he was a gentlemanly epitome of the UN careerist, who also acknowledged he had a nationality, and handled the combination with grace and a style that balanced the two. But I believe him to have been more a representative of an earlier era, for, unfortunately, many younger UN people today seem unable to meld both, and instead fall back on a delusion that they are somehow "citizens of the world". In particular, many have evidently come to think of themselves as living in another sphere that is rather different and even more elevated than the rest of us -- who dwell in (so "old-fashioned" and "unenlightened" are we) the sphere of (Yuck!) lowly nation-states.

The book to which he refers seems to be one of those that falls in the shadows between in-print and out-of-print. Most places that I routinely check only offer it used, but I notice that www.ecampus.com has it listed as available new. I'm not sure whether ecampus is closing out some of the last new ones available or whether it's a genuine reissue, so if you're interested in a new copy I'm not sure I'd dawdle.


Hammarskjold

I'd also like to take this opportunity to point out a search tip for people looking for used books at Barnes & Noble. My initial search this morning found three copies of this title, but when I went to the bottom of the page there was a "There may be more copies of this title available" notice, with a place to click to "Search for other editions and formats". Using that option, I got twelve used copies from which to pick.

Databases being what they are, I always check the "Search for other editions and formats" option when it is available to me. Saves oodles of money in the long run, for one thing, and sometimes it lets me find a used copy in better condition than those copies that came up on the first search.

And, oh, I might mention that the title of Robert's post might have been "Our Global Supreme Court - Not". He argues that there's a difference between what the charter says and what some people would have you think it says.