In confronting any question about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the late sixties one is uncomfortably aware of insistent questioning as to how much it all matters. Is NATO a device to meet horizontal challenges when the new challenges are vertical? Is “the West,” whatever that is, defending the Elbe when the struggle is going on in its own streets? These challenges from within are not the subversion directed from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which NATO subcommittees had always taken into their calculations. Insofar as they are Communist in inspiration at all, they are the consequences of the disruption of the Muscovite International. What makes them serious is that they have their roots in Western society itself. Perhaps the West has been too much preoccupied with interstate relations and the creation of superstates when the essential problems are internal—not isolated national phenomena certainly, but eruptions which ignore boundaries, in some cases intensely nationalistic and at the same time dedicated to removing the barriers between peoples. The new rebels are deeply skeptical of that “way of life” the West has insisted it was defending through NATO and believe nothing could be more irrelevant than a military alliance to defend it.

The movement toward a one-world economy that seemed well underway during the middle 1950's has suffered setbacks. Retrogression has been particularly noticeable where previously progress had been most promising—in the relations of the United States with other industrial countries and especially with the European Economic Community (EEC). Difficulties over the United States' payments deficit, the international role of the dollar, and direct investment by the United States, mark the trend. The outcome of the Kennedy Round negotiations, fortunately, was a success, but the very duration and the bitterness of the negotiations were symptomatic of a deteriorating relationship. And complicating these economic problems were the political difficulties arising over the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Vietnam.

The decade since the formation of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1957 has been marked by an impressive growth of theorizing about the causes of international regional integration in Europe and in other parts of the world. However, differences in approach to conceptualization and measurement of the dependent variable—integration—have led to two kinds of problems. First, it is difficult to relate the concepts of different authors to each other, and to a certain extent integration theorists have “talked past each other”. In other instances where theorists have indeed confronted each other, such as in the controversy over the current condition of the EEC (described below), differences in conceptualization have made the dispute unnecessarily difficult to resolve.

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is not a diplomatic conference, or a parliament, or an executive organ, although it smacks of all three. Among international, governmental, deliberative bodies it is sui generis. As such, it engages in discussing quasi diplomatic issues, chiefly economic and social in nature, in recommending policy actions by governments, in trying to plan and coordinate interagency programs in the economic and social domain, and in innovating and supervising programs under UN sponsorship.

A notable gap in existing analyses of the United Nations is the relative absence of systematic treatments of the links between the Organization itself and the international system in which it operates. These links constitute a complex dual relationship, both sides of which are worthy of serious analyses. The functions and activities of the United Nations are molded by the fundamental dimensions and dynamic processes of the international system. At the same time, however, the United Nations is itself an actor in the system and it is sometimes able to influence its environment significantly. Throughout the history of the United Nations the impact of the systemic environment on the Organization has far surpassed the impact of the Organization on the system. Nevertheless, the influence of the United Nations on world politics should not be underestimated, especially in its more subtle and intangible forms.

The General Assembly held its 22nd session, comprising the 1560th–1642nd plenary meetings, at UN Headquarters from September 19 to December 19, 1967, during which time it took action on 96 agenda items and adopted 113 resolutions. Part of the Assembly's proceedings were summarized in the Summer 1968 issue of International Organization1 and the remainder follows below.

The Security Council met on October 24, 1967, in its 1369th meeting at the request of the United Arab Republic1 and Israel to discuss the situation in the Middle East. The question was debated at the 1369th–137ist meetings, October 24–25. Representatives of the United Arab Republic, Israel, Jordan, and Syria were invited to take part in the discussions without the right to vote.

Economic Commission for Africa: The eighth session of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), held on February 13–25, 1967, in Lagos, Nigeria, was attended by 29 African states, five associate members, 27 observers, and representatives of United Nations organs and other organizations. The Chairman, A. A. Ayida (Nigeria), stated that Botswana, Gambia, and Lesotho, after accession to independence, were now full members of the Commission. Following the report of the Executive Secretary on the measures taken in pursuance of a Commission resolution on the participation of the peoples of Angola, Mozambique, Portuguese Guinea, and South West Africa in the work of the Commission ECA unanimously adopted a resolution which recommended that the Organization of African Unity (OAU) designate the representatives of the territories concerned and inform the secretariat accordingly.

The twentieth annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) took place in Washington, September 27–October 1, 1965, under the chairmanship of Yilma Deressa, Minister of Finance and Governor for Ethiopia. The meeting was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and with the annual meetings of the Bank's affiliates, the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The Ministerial Council of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) met in Paris on December 2–3, 1964, on November 25–26, 1965, on November 24–25, 1966, and on November 30—December 1, 1967, to review the economic situation of its member states and their economic relations with the rest of the world.

The third ordinary session of the Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) took place in Cairo, July 13–17, 1964. The Council examined 21 applications from “freedom fighter” organizations for representation in that body. The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville) was represented at the meeting of the Council of Ministers, but when it was announced that Moise Tshombe, the new Congolese Prime Minister, would attend the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, objections were raised by a number of Heads of State and Ministers. As a result Mr. Tshombe announced that the Congolese government would not take part in the Assembly.