5 THE POST-WAR DECLINE OF THE INTERNATIONAL STUDIES CONFERENCE 473the Italian Committee of International Studies (which was also elected
a member of the ISC’s executive committee), the Finnish Committee
of International Studies, the Greek Society of International Studies, the
Pakistan Institute of International Affairs and the International Institute
of Public Law.^155
Discussion at the conference mainly centred on the aims, means and
working methods of the ISC with a view to their refinement. In what
was seen as an important breakthrough, the conference decided that
in future, the conference’s programme committee rather than the con-
ference as a whole, would have the final say in regard to the topics
addressed by the conference in order to ensure that they were of a ‘lim-
ited and specific’ character.^156
The conference determined that the programme committee, which
was to be appointed by the executive committee on the basis of merit
and would not necessarily include within its ranks individuals belong-
ing to member institutions, would choose from among topics on which
serious and advanced research was being undertaken in various coun-
tries. Very importantly, the conference decided that the work that the
programme committee would distribute to members of the conference,
would be undertaken on a collective basis rather than by national groups,
‘though without it being necessary for all members of the Conference
to share in the same work.’ According to a report on the 1949 confer-
ence appearing in UNESCO’s International Social Science Bulletin, in
embracing these measures the ISC had ‘adopted the procedure for reach
and comparison of theses applied in the field of the exact sciences.’^157
According to the same report, although the 1949 conference decided
that the topic chosen in 1946 as the next subject of study was ‘too
vague,’ it nonetheless heard reports on the work that had already been
carried out ‘on the independence and sovereignty of nations’ in modern
international life. The report on the conference observed that the con-
ference’s discussion of the reports on the independence and sovereignty
of nations was remarkable for its degree of cordiality given that partic-
ipating in it were experts from both Western and Eastern Europe and
(^155) International Social Science Bulletin 1, nos. 3–4 (1949), 93.
(^156) Ibid., 94.
(^157) International Social Science Bulletin 1, nos. 3–4 (1949), 93–5.