Self-determination as Ideology: The Cold War, the End of Empire, and the Making of UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 (14 December 1960)

The history of self-determination is often presented as a linear narrative beginning with the UN Charter (1945), followed by the Decolonization Declaration (1960), with self-determination ‘crystallizing’ at some imperceptible moment into a rule of customary international law. However, a more accurate description might be that of a recurring competition between two diametrically opposed visions of self-determination: President Woodrow Wilson’s vision of self-government by trusteeship and Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin’s vision of independence through revolution. During the Cold War, these diametrically opposed visions divided the United Nations (UN), resulting in the UN General Assembly adopting Resolution 1514 (which reflected Lenin’s anticolonialism) and its sister Resolution 1541 (which reflected Wilsonian ideas of self-government). While Lenin’s vision prevailed during decolonization, the Wilsonian vision came back to the fore with the end of the Cold War. Still, the two continue to sit side by side in an uneasy relationship—demonstrating self-determination’s continuity, discontinuity, and recurrence. Given its history, self-determination is therefore better understood as a contest of competing ideologies over time that was intimately linked to the rise and fall of empires, rather than a legal principle of general applicability.

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The Ground of Self-determination

Self-Determination Through Struggle

Lenin: Imperialism and National Self-determination

Notes

On self-determination as erga omnes, see East Timor (Portugal v Australia) Judgment [1995] ICJ Rep 90, 102, para 29; Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Advisory Opinion [2004] ICJ Rep 136, 171–172, para 88. On self-determination as jus cogens, see International Law Commission (2001), comm to art 40, para 5.

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights [1966] (ICESCR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [1966] (ICCPR), and the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [1966] common art 1.

This is why the UN Charter contains separate chapters: the Declaration regarding Non-Self-Governing Territories in Chapter XI, which only speaks of self-government, and the International Trusteeship System in Chapter XII, which speaks of self-government or independence. Summers (2014) 199.

Legal Consequences for States of the Contitiued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (South West Africa) notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970) Advisory Opinion [1971] ICJ Rep 16; Western Sahara Advisory Opinion [1975] ICJ Rep 12.

The two visions of self-determination were raised in the interstate arbitration on the British Indian Ocean Territory. See Kattan (2016) 68.

See South Africa Bill [Lords] HC Deb 16 August 1909, vol 9 cc951–1058, cols 1000–1002, where Balfour criticized the language in the American Declaration of Independence because it insinuated that the races of Africa are ‘equals of men of European descent’. During the negotiations to establish the League of Nations in Paris in 1919, Lord Balfour reiterated this view. See Lauren (1996) 91.

See Rousseau (1953) 159. On Rousseau’s influence on the leaders of the 1794 insurrection in Warsaw, see Nabulsi (2005) 213–217.

See Brownlie (1970) 93–94; Umozurike (1972) 11–20; Ofuatey-Kodjoe (1977) 69; Shivji (1991) 33–40; Thornberry (1994) 176–177; Koskenniemi (1994); Cassese (1995) 14–22; Musgrave (1997) 17–24; Castellino (2000) 13–22; Raič (2002) 177–188; Anghie (2005) 139; Crawford (2006) 108 and fn 41; Bowring (2011) 143; Summers (n 6) 173–178.

See Cassese ibid 14; Musgrave ibid 18–20. See also Shivji ibid 34; Crawford ibid 41; Anghie ibid 139.

Umozurike (n 29) 13; Castellino (n 29) 13, describing Wilson as ‘the father of the modern norm of self-determination’; Raič (n 29) 177–179, curiously citing Musgrave for the proposition that Wilson was a supporter of democratic government from as early as 1914 (not mentioning that African-Americans did not have the right to vote then). See also Thornberry (n 29) 176–177.

See Bowring (n 29) 141–143; Cassese (n 29) 14–19; Musgrave (n 29) 18–19. Luxemburg’s thesis opposing an independent Poland was an affront to Lenin, and it prompted him to write a polemic originally published in 1914. Lenin (1972a, b) 393–454.

Musgrave (n 29) 17–18. The Sykes-Picot Agreement [1916] was found by Leon Trotsky amongst the secret papers of the Russian Foreign Office. The memorandum was subsequently published in Isvestia on 24 November 1917 and in The Manchester Guardian on 19 January 1918. See Seymour Cooks (1918) 44. See also St J MacDonald (1998) 77–79. For the text of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty [1918] that ended the war between Russia and Germany, see Degras (1951) 50–55. art 3 of that treaty provides that Germany and Austria-Hungary agree ‘to determine the future status’ of the territories from which Russia had withdrawn its troops ‘in agreement with their population’.

Stalin (1976) 67–68. The quote also appears in Marxism and the National and Colonial Question, although the translation is slightly different to the translation by Peking Foreign Languages Press. Stalin (n 36) 190–191.

Of course, Lenin never wanted Stalin to succeed him. See Lewin (1969). See also Starushenko (n 36) 100–101 (addressing the nationalities dispute) and Meissner (n 54) 60.

In his autobiography, Nehru recalls childhood memories that bear an uncanny resemblance to the way in which non-Europeans were treated in South Africa. Jawaharlal Nehru, An Autobiography (Penguin 2004) 7.

Recall the incident in Burmese Days, when Mr McGregor, the Deputy Commissioner, opposes John Flory’s request to elect Dr Veraswamy to the all-whites European club in Katha. Significantly, in opposing the election, McGregor describes Flory as ‘a bit too Bolshie for my taste. I can’t bear a fellow who palls up with the natives. I shouldn’t wonder if he’s got a lick of the tarbrush himself.’ George Orwell, Burmese Days (first published 1934, Penguin with a new introduction 2009) 32 (emphasis in original).

Mao (1975) 335–336. Even Chiang Kai-Shek flirted with communism in his early days. See Taylor (2011) 34, 41–48, and 53.

See Stalin’s speech to a meeting of students of the Communist University of the Toilers of the East on 18 May 1925 in Stalin (n 36) 206–220. The university was established to train ‘communist cadres for the East’ and students from ‘colonial and dependent countries … where capitalism still reigns.’ Known alumni include Ho Chi Minh, Chiang Ching-kuo (Chiang Kai-shek’s son), Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, Khalid Bakdash and Jomo Kenyatta.

The Soviet–Sino schism occurred after Stalin’s death and after Khrushchev’s famous speech denouncing the personality cult of Stalin and seeking to return to the ways of Lenin. For Khrushchev’s reflections on the schism, see Crankshaw (1971) 461–479. For an American translation of Khrushchev’s ‘secret’ speech denouncing Stalin, see Crankshaw at 559–618.

See Coltman (n 84) 48. On Guevara, see Anderson (2010) 49 and 458. Nasser also read the writings of Lenin, Nkrumah, and Trotsky, who shaped his inherent anticolonialism according to Aburish. See Aburish (2005) 14.

Following the Indian Mutiny in 1857 and the formation of the Viceroy’s Executive Council by the Indian Councils Act 1861, there was no native representation until the adoption of the Indian Councils Act 1909 when one member was appointed. The Government of India Act 1919 increased the number of Indians in the Council to three although Indians always remained a minority until the outbreak of the Second World War.

Bain (n 98) 51, quoting ‘Queen Victoria’s Proclamation, 1 November 1858’ in Cyril Henry Philips (ed), The Evolution of India and Pakistan, 1858–1947 (Oxford University Press 1962) 11.

Quoted in Cassese (1986) 58, referencing Robert Lansing, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the US 1917–1919 ii, 253, 247–248.

On Wilson’s opposition to the Japanese equality proposal, see Lauren (n 13) 82–107. The text of the equality proposal was published in The Colonial Problem: A Report by a Study Group of Members of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Oxford University Press 1937) 59. Under the terms of the Versailles Treaty, the former German colonies on Chinese territory were not to be given back to China but would instead be handed over to China’s rival Japan. See Mitter (2004) 3–11. A young Wellington Koo pleaded with President Wilson to change his mind over Shandong when he was a PhD student at Columbia University but to no avail. See Manela (n 95) 177–196. Koo would later become a judge of the International Court of Justice, where he addressed colonial disputes in several cases, such as the Temple of Vihear Preah Case, Right of Passage through India and South West Africa.

See Korea and Japan Treaty of Annexation, Proclamation and accompanying documents [1910] in Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Korea: Treaties and Agreements (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 1921) 64.

To paraphrase from Wilson’s statement to the joint session of Congress in 1918. See Scott (1918) 371.

Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Viet-Nam [1954] art 14; Final Declaration of the Geneva Conference on the Problem of Restoring Peace in Indo-China [1954] para 7.

Indochina—Final Declaration of the Geneva Conference on the Problem of Restoring Peace in Indo-China [1954] art 7 (The Avalon Project, 2008) http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/inch005.asp.

See the statement of Anthony Eden, the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary in Cabinet, Conclusions of a meeting of the Cabinet held in the Prime Minister’s room, House of Commons, SW1 on Friday 23 July 1954, at 11am, cc (54) 52nd conclusions p 3, CAB 128/27. TNA.

As Crawford explains: ‘A single Socialist Republic of Vietnam claiming the allegiance of the whole people of Vietnam was admitted as a Member State of the United Nations in 1977.’ Crawford (n 29) 477.

For the American draft see ‘Telegram from the Department of State to the Mission at the United Nations, 4 November 1960’ in Suzanne Coffman and Charles Sampson (eds), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, vol II, United Nations General International Matters (Government Printing Office 1991) 433–435. There were also separate resolutions drafted by Burma, Guinea, and Iran. See RG: 59 General Records of the Department of State 1960–1963 Central Decimal File from 321.1/1–1162 to 321.4/12–860, Box no 508. National Archives at College Park, Maryland, United States.

UN Conference on International Organization (UNCIO) vol 3, doc 2, G/26 (F), 11 May 1945, 618. See also UNCIO vol 10, doc 310, II/4/II, 15 May 1945, 441 (emphases added). See further Tunkin (n 38) 63; Summers (n 6) 200.

The Singapore Special Branch Report is dated 18 November 1958. See Asian Solidarity Conference FCO 141/14843 (1959). A copy of the report is available at the National Archives in Singapore at 1 Canning Rise, where this was viewed.

The conference has recently been celebrated by Third World scholars of international law in Luis Eslava et al (2018).

UN General Assembly res 626 (VII), 21 December 1952. The resolution was adopted by 36 votes in favour to 4 against with 20 abstentions. The Soviet Union voted in favour of the resolution. New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States voted against the resolution. Most European states abstained.

See ‘Statement of US Policy Toward South, Central, and East Africa, 19 January 1960’ in Schwar H, Shaloff S (eds), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, vol XIV, General U.S. Policy Toward Africa (Government Printing Office 1992) 80.

‘Telegram from the Department of State to the Delegation of the United Nations, 3 October 1960’ in Foreign Relations of the United States (n 128) 381–382.

‘Editorial Note’ in Foreign Relations of the United States (n 128) 457–458. See also ‘Statement of US Policy Toward South, Central, and East Africa’ (n 148).

See ‘Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the President and the Secretary of State, Washington, 8 December 1960’ in Foreign Relations of the United States (n 128) 455.

See ‘Remarks by the Secretary of State, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York, 23 September 1960’ in Foreign Relations of the United States (n 128) 349–350.

See ‘Record of the Secretary of State’s Staff Meeting, Department of State, Washington, 26 September 1960’ in ibid 356.

UN General Assembly res 1514 (n 1). Australia, Belgium, Dominican Republic, France, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States abstained.

‘Telegram to Secretary of State from US Ambassador James Wadsworth, 13 December 1960’ Control: 7221 in RG: 59 General Records of the Department of State 1960–1963 Central Decimal File from 321.1/1–1162 to 321.4/12–860, Box no 508. National Archives at College Park, Maryland, United States.

Only in 1964, four years after the General Assembly adopted the Decolonization Declaration, was the US Civil Rights Act passed. See Dudziak (2000) 79–202.

UN General Assembly, Official Records, Fifteenth Session, 939th Plenary Meeting, 7 December 1960, 1190–1191, Agenda item 87: Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples, para 25 (Zorin).

This is borne out by the voting record. Albania, Bulgaria, Byelorussia, China, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, and the Soviet Union abstained.

See memorandum from Cleveland to Kohler ‘US position at resumed session of the UN General Assembly on Establishment of Target Dates for Self-Determination by Dependent Territories’ [undated but probably 1961] in Control: 7221 in RG: 59 General Records of the Department of State 1960–1963 Central Decimal File from 321.1/1–1162 to 321.4/12–860, Box no 508. National Archives at College Park, Maryland, United States.

The resolution was adopted by 97 votes to 0 with 4 abstentions (France, South Africa, Spain and the United Kingdom).

cf. Friendly Relations Declaration (n 8) to what Stalin (under Lenin’s guidance) wrote in Marxism and the National and Colonial Question. Stalin (n 36) 18–19. Although the Friendly Relations Declaration is silent on the question of secession, which had been forcefully promoted by Lenin, the Declaration left the door open by agreeing that another mode of exercising self-determination in addition to establishing a state, a free association, or integration would be one that would lead to ‘the emergence into any other political status freely determined by a people’ (principle 5), which could be read as an implicit acknowledgement of the possibility of secession. The Declaration also recognized the right of peoples struggling for self-determination to receive support from other states in their acts of resistance, which was another idea inspired by Lenin and Stalin.

See eg the views of Thornberry (n 29) 177. Thornberry argues that totalitarian governments of right or left is incompatible with self-determination even though the Soviet Union and China were some of the biggest supporters of self-determination during the Cold War.

ibid 177–178. Thornberry describes the new order of the UN in 1945 as being ‘different’ and refers to the ‘Charter story’ continuing with the Decolonization Declaration.

The independence of South Sudan in 2011, for example, hardly satisfied the Wilsonian conception, but this did not stop South Sudan from attaining UN membership.

Not all states that joined the United Nations between 1945 and 1975 were former colonies. For a table showing the growth of United Nations membership, from 1945–present see United Nations, ‘Growth in United Nations Membership’ (United Nations, undated) http://www.un.org/en/members/growth.shtml.

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Authors and Affiliations

1. University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK Victor Kattan

1. Victor Kattan