Creating the United Nations in the U.S. Foreign Policy Strategy of the 1940s

The article examines the evolution of the U.S. foreign policy strategy during the Second World War, which allowed the establishment of the United Nations. It assesses the changes in the strategic thinking of Washington's leadership, primarily the transition from isolationism to global engagement. The authors note that the administrations of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, when changing their foreign policy, drew on such a constant as the idea of American exceptionalism, but transferred it to a global scale. This, in turn, required the establishment of global institutions that could become a vehicle for the abovementioned maxim. The U.S. policy towards the establishment of the U.N. is examined through the lens of R. Putnam's two-level game model. Attention is drawn to the domestic political difficulties of Franklin Roosevelt's administration, including the need to secure the support of a Congress hostile to global organisations, and foreign policy obstacles, primarily related to attempts to find a balance with the position of the USSR. The authors analyse various proposed models of global institutions, such as the restoration of the League of Nations or the establishment of regional fora, and conclude on the reasons for the success of the idea of creating the U.N. The article examines the determination of decision-making modalities in the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), the key military-political body of the organisation, as a specific example of the projection of the U.S. foreign policy paradigm shift on the establishment of the world organisation. It demonstrates the efforts of U.S. diplomats to strengthen the American position in the organisation by promoting decision-making by a simple majority and limiting the veto right of the UNSC permanent members. It points out that Washington was able to achieve two main objectives: to consolidate at the legal level its exclusive status and to introduce the theoretical possibility of discussing any subject in the UNSC (while reserving the right to block it by a simple majority).

USA, UN, USSR, Cold War, foreign policy strategy, multilateral diplomacy, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman