468 J.-A. PEMBERTON
The study requested by UNESCO was entitled ‘Ways of Life’ and
formed part of the ‘Unesco Plan for the Study of States of Tension,’ that
is, the study of those states of tension that conduce to war. It should
be noted that ‘The Study of States of Tension’ was one of the first pro-
jects proposed by UNESCO in 1947.^137 In regard to the particular
study which was ‘Ways of Life,’ the intention was that it would take the
form of a series of monographs authored by experts who would describe
therein the ‘ways of life and the aspirations’ of peoples in different coun-
tries as well as their understanding of themselves, their neighbours and
the world at large. In addition to this, the researchers preparing the
‘Ways of Life’ monographs would be expected to identify those influ-
ences, familial, religious, ideological, political and so on, which shape
peoples’ identities and attitudes.^138
According to Vernant, the general secretary of the Centre d’études de
politique étrangère and Mayoux’s replacement as secretary of the ISC fol-
lowing the latter’s resignation from the role at the December 1946 confer-
ence, that the ISC had been asked to undertake the study known as ‘Ways
of Life,’ showed that UNESCO had great ‘confidence’ in it. Vernant stated
that the ISC was the only organisation that was ‘broadly and solidly enough
constructed, and possessing enough independence, to be entrusted’ with a
study which, in his view, was especially important and delicate.^139 Vernant
insisted that it was not a question of researching a ‘pretended national char-
acter but of showing the realisations and the sentimental or ideological aspi-
rations—however contradictory—of a nation, in integrating them into the
social milieu which explains them as much as they themselves model it.’^140
(^137) Report of the Director-General for 1948, quoted in Tripp, ‘UNESCO in Perspective,’
International Conciliation, 343. See also ‘Dr. Quincy Wright: Letter,’ International Social
Science Bulletin 1, nos. 1–2 (1949): 22.
(^138) Vernant, ‘International Relations: The Work of the International Studies Conference,’
59, and Jacques Vernant, ‘La Conférence Permanente des Hautes Études Internationales,’
Bulletin International des Sciences Sociales 1, nos. 1–2 (1949): 120–22, 121. See also Laves
and Thomson, UNESCO: Purpose, Progress, Prospects, 253–56, 404. The Ways of Life
studies were focussed on seventeen different countries: Australia, Austria, Egypt, France,
Hungary, Greece, Italy, India, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Poland.
Switzerland, the Union of South Africa and the United Kingdom. Six of these studies (one
each on Australia, Canada, Norway, Pakistan, South Africa, Switzerland and the United
Kingdom), were published.
(^139) Vernant, ‘International Relations: The Work of the International Studies Conference,’ 59.
(^140) Vernant, ‘La Conférence Permanente des Hautes Études Internationales,’ 121.