Intergovernmental Organ izations 219reform, he appointed more women to top positions, eliminated patronage jobs, insti-
tuted internal competition for jobs, and reor ga nized major departments. However, he
is viewed generally as a weak leader, lacking in key communication skills, preferring to
operate below the radar. But, as one journalist acknowledged, “The fact is that when
the great powers squabble, there’s little that anyone in the organ ization can accom-
plish, be they competent or not... .”^6
Throughout the United Nations, when one organ has increased in importance,
others have diminished, most notably the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
and the Trusteeship Council, albeit for very dif er ent reasons. ECOSOC was originally
established to coordinate the vari ous economic and social activities within the UN
system through a number of specialized agencies. But the expansion of those activities
and the increase in the number of programs has made ECOSOC’s task of coordination
a problematic one. In addition to covering such broad issues as human rights, the sta-
tus of women, population and development, and social development, ECOSOC is
charged with coordinating the work of the family of UN- specialized institutions (dis-
cussed later). In contrast, the Trusteeship Council has worked its way out of a job. Its
task was to supervise decolonization and to phase out trust territories placed under
UN guardianship during the transition of colonies to in de pen dent states. Thus, the very
success of the Trusteeship Council has led to its demise.
Key P O lItI cal Issues
The United Nations has always mirrored what is happening in the world, and, in turn,
the United Nations and its organs have shaped the world. The United Nations played a
key role in the decolonization of Africa and Asia. The UN Charter endorsed the princi ple
of self- determination for colonial peoples, and former colonies such as India, Egypt,
Indonesia, and the Latin American states seized on the United Nations as a forum to
push the agenda of decolonization. By 1960, a majority of the United Nations’ members
favored decolonization. UN resolutions condemned the continuation of colonial rule and
called for annual reports on the pro gress toward in de pen dence of all remaining territo-
ries. The United Nations was instrumental in the legitimation of the new international
norm that colonialism and imperialism are unacceptable state policies. By the mid-1960s,
most former colonies had achieved in de pen dence with little threat to international peace,
and the United Nations had played a significant role in this transformation.
The emergence of the newly in de pen dent states transformed the United Nations
and international politics more generally. These states formed a co ali tion of the South,
or Group of 77— developing states whose interests lie in economic development, a
group often at loggerheads with the developed countries of the North. The split
between the North and the South led to the Group of 77 calling for a New International
Economic Order (see Chapter 4). The North- South conflict continues to be a central