Ralph Bunche, the United Nations, and the Fight to End Empire

The Lawfare Podcast

The Lawfare Institute

Politics, Terrorism, National Security, News, Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Intelligence, Rule Of Law, Military, Constitutional Law, Current Events, International Relations, History, International Law, Government, Law

4.7 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2022

⏱️ 61 minutes

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Summary

Ralph Bunche, one of the most prominent Black Americans of the 20th century, was a legendary diplomat, who from his perch at the United Nations was a central player in the decolonization movement after World War II. To discuss Bunche and his accomplishments, Lawfare founding editor and Harvard Law professor Jack Goldsmith sat down with Kal Raustiala, the Promise Institute Distinguished Professor of Comparative and International Law at UCLA Law School, about his new book, “The Absolutely Indispensable Man: Ralph Bunche, the United Nations, and the Fight to End Empire.” They discussed the role played by Bunche and the United Nations in the decolonization movement, what made Bunche such a great diplomat, Bunche’s view of the relationship between empire and domestic racial segregation, and more.

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Transcript

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0:22.0	rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath.
0:29.0	And Ralph Bunch is the guy who puts it together.
0:37.0	So he becomes the key kind of organizer and implementer.
0:42.0	So he gathers the troops he meets with the different countries.
0:45.0	It's amazing because he gets so many offers.
0:48.0	So he later says, you know, I couldn't use half of the troops that were offered to me for this peacekeeping mission.
0:53.0	Which if you know anything about peacekeeping today,
0:55.0	you know that the secretary general has to kind of go around hat and hand trying to get troops.
0:59.0	And it's often very difficult.
1:01.0	It was not a problem initially.
1:03.0	And so Bunch is there at the beginning.
1:05.0	And he introduces a lot of the key things that we associate with peacekeepers.
1:09.0	So the first blue helmets, the idea of having no national markers, no national flags.
1:15.0	These are all things that he argues and debates and implements.
1:18.0	So he is really the kind of architect of that first peacekeeping mission.
1:23.0	And he's very proud of it throughout his life.
1:25.0	I'm Jack Goldsmith and this is the Lawfare Podcast, December 16th, 2022.
	...

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