Dumbarton Oaks Conference
덤바턴오크스 회의
An international conference held at the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Washington, D.C., from 21 August to 7 October 1944, where representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China drafted the basic architecture and principles of the United Nations. The conference reached the first agreement on the four principal organs (General Assembly, Security Council, International Court of Justice, and Secretariat) and on the veto power of permanent Security Council members. Its output, the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals, served as the baseline draft for the 1945 San Francisco Conference.
In depth
Background
The Dumbarton Oaks Conference was the first substantive step in implementing Paragraph 4 of the 1943 Moscow Declaration, in which the US, UK, USSR, and China recognized the need for a postwar international organization to succeed the League of Nations. The conference translated that commitment into a concrete draft charter.
Structure
Because the Soviet Union refused to sit directly with China, the conference proceeded in two phases. Phase one (21 August–28 September) involved the US, UK, and USSR; phase two (29 September–7 October) involved the US, UK, and China. US Under-Secretary of State Edward Stettinius Jr. chaired the conference; Andrei Gromyko led the Soviet delegation, Sir Alexander Cadogan the British, and Wellington Koo the Chinese.
Central Issues
Two questions dominated. The first was the scope of the permanent members' veto in the Security Council: the USSR insisted that a permanent member involved in a dispute should retain its veto, a position later settled at Yalta. The second was the Soviet demand that all 16 Soviet republics be admitted to the UN; this was ultimately compromised by granting separate membership to the Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSRs. The conference also agreed to include France as a fifth permanent member while rejecting a US proposal for Brazil.
Outcome
The Dumbarton Oaks Proposals, adopted on 7 October 1944, provided the skeletal framework of the UN Charter: the four principal organs (General Assembly, Security Council, International Court of Justice, Secretariat) and the veto principle. It did, however, leave the voting procedure in the Security Council and Soviet republic membership unresolved, deferring them to the Yalta Conference. The Proposals became the baseline document that delegates of 50 nations reviewed and amended at the San Francisco Conference (April–June 1945), which produced the final UN Charter.
Related historical events
Sources
- Wikipedia (EN) conference dates, participants, two-phase structure, veto and membership disputes, Dumbarton Oaks Proposals as basis for San Francisco
- Wikipedia (RU) Russian article confirming dates, participants, key Soviet demands (all 16 republics, veto scope), and Yalta follow-up
- nationalww2museum.org confirms Dumbarton Oaks Proposals were among the baseline documents worked from at the San Francisco Conference
- dipublico.org full text of the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals (Proposals for the Establishment of a General International Organization, 7 October 1944)