Birth of the United Nations
Before 1945, most Dutch involvement abroad was missionary work in the colonies. While the main goal was to spread the gospel and establish Christianity, there was also attention paid to development. Missionaries often contributed to education, health care, and agriculture development to bring ‘civilisation’ to what was then commonly referred to as ‘backward’ societies. However, Dutch involvement abroad shifted after World War II.
In 1945, representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco at the United Nations Conference on International Organisation, among which were Dutch representatives. Later that year, the Netherlands ratified the UN charter, which founded the UN. At its core, the United Nations held the hope for peace that was born after the disasters of both World Wars. . The UN succeeded the League of Nations, which had been founded with a similar spirit in 1920 after World War I, and was the world’s first governmental organisation of this kind. Later in 1945, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) was established through the adoption of the UNESCO Constitution. Interestingly, education and global citizenship have become inextricably linked. Read more here.
"It is in the minds of women & men that the defences of peace must be constructed" - UNESCO’s constitution
In 1949, the President of the United States at the time, H. Truman, announced his “bold new program” for the development of ‘the underdeveloped world’. Following in his footsteps, the Dutch government made their first contribution the UN’s Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance (EPTA), comprising 1.5 million guilders, which constitutes circa 7.4 million in 2022 euros
However, at the time, Dutch development cooperation was not based on ideological convictions such as international solidarity or global citizenship. Rather, the government was motivated by economic factors, like the export interests of Dutch private firms, as well as the possibility to return to Indonesia with EPTA, providing jobs to the many Dutch intellectuals and technical workers that used to work in the colonies, many of whom were so-called ‘tropics-experts’. Moreover, the hostilities and acts of war by the Dutch in Indonesia during the Indonesian National Revolution from 1945 to 1949 had tarnished the status of the Netherlands internationally. Therefore, by contributing to the EPTA, the expectation was to restore some of its former glory. Read more here. Later, in 1956, Minister of Foreign Affairs J.M.A.H Luns (KVP, later CDA) added a fourth motivation for development cooperation in a note to parliament: anticommunism.
World Federalist Movement Netherlands
In 1948 the World Federalist Movement Netherlands (Wereld Federalisten Beweging Nederland, WFBM) was established, connected to the World Movement for World Federal Government (WMWFG). In the 1950s, the WFBM had more than 15.000 members in the Netherlands. The aim of this organization was to achieve a federal world government. Read more about the WFBM here. The WFBM is also connected to the International Registry of World Citizens. This organisation was formed by Garry Davis, a former Broadway actor and U.S. bomber pilot during WWII, who renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1948 and declared himself a ‘citizen of the world’. Davis advocated for the world citizen movement, a global legal system and for the UN to become a world government. Despite Davis' best efforts, the UN did not approve of his ideals.
Nevertheless, in 1949, he established the International Registry of World Citizens and in little time, over 750,000 individuals from over 150 countries registered, even though the legal basis for a world identity remained absent, as exemplified by the rejection of the legality of Davis' citizenship status by nation-states. Among the hundreds of thousands of people that registered as global citizens, are personalities like Albert Camus, Albert Einstein, Jean-Paul Sartre, Linus Pauling, Yehudi Menuhin, Garry Davis, Bertrand Russell, Jawaharlal Nehru, Abbé Pierre, Sicco Mansholt, and Sir Peter Ustinov. In 1953, Davis declared the establishment of the World Government of World Citizens built on fundamental human rights. For more on Garry Davis and his pioneering work as ‘the first world citizens’ click here.
“As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable. There is no salvation for civilization, or even the human race, other than the creation of a world government.” - Albert Einstein
Simultaneously, in 1948, the Netherlands took part in significant global events. Firstly, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted in Paris, with the Netherlands voting in favour. For the first time, fundamental human rights were written down to be universally protected. Years later, in a report looking back at the UDHR over time published in 2016, the Global Citizenship Commission regard the UDHR as one of the fundaments for a ‘modern global ethic’.
The second event of 1948 was the establishment of the World Health Organisation (WHO), with the aim to achieve the highest form of health for every person. The WHO Constitution entered into force on the 7th of April that year, today known as world health day.
Afterwards, in 1954 the World Service Authority (WSA) (under the mandate of Universal Declaration of Human Rights) was founded in New York and began issuing World Government Documents such as ‘world citizen’ identity cards and the ‘World Passport’. Today, the WSA is a non-profit foundation and has issues almost 5 million of such documents
European institutions
Beyond the emergence of novel global institutions, European integration also took off during the 1940s and 50s. Often credited as the catalyst for this process is the cooperation between Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg which resulted in the BeNeLux. During WWII, representatives of the governments of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg met in London to continue nurturing (economic) ties; a process that can be traced back to the 19th century. In 1943 the three countries signed their first economic treaty and a year later, the second treaty was signed on September 5th, foreshadowing a customs union. On January 1st, 1948, this customs union entered into effect, abolishing internal export and import tariffs. The three countries also set common tariffs for external trade.
In 1951 the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), predecessor of the European Union (EU), is formed by the Treaty of Paris. This treaty was signed by Italy,, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and West Germany. It formed the basis for the establishment of a common market for coal and steel in Europe. Six years later, in 1957, the European Economic Community (EEC) was established by same signatories, furthering European integration. The ECSC outlined, amongst other things, the right to free movement for labourers in the coal and steel industries. The Treaty of Rome expanded this right to free movement of all workers within the EEC, although this was only implemented a decade later. These events show the integration of European nation-states and, in hindsight, formed the foundation for the curation of a supranational European citizenship.
Education
1952 saw the foundation of the Netherlands Universities Foundation for Internationalisation in Education (NUFFIC). The goal was in its name, namely to promote the internationalisation of education in the Netherlands. To achieve this goal, the foundation works with national and international, private and public organisations. In 2022, the organisation reached 70 years of existence. Here you can read an interview with its Director-General looking back at NUFFIC’s history and towards its future. One of the first assignments of the NUFFIC was to establish the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS); a post-graduate institution with a focus on (international) development issues. The ISS started in 1952 with training mid-career professionals from ‘developing countries’, at first predominantly from South and Southeast Asia. Later, it took a multi-disciplinary and policy-focused perspective for the needs of ‘developing countries’.
At the time of their establishment, the ISS and NUFFIC were allowed to use the monumental Paleis Noordeinde in The Hague as their base, together. Over time, the ISS has moved twice, and their mission has changed considerably. And by 1956, the ISS had become independent from the NUFFIC. Read more about its history here.
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