UN Contributions to Development Thinking and Practice

About the Project

387 About the Project The United Nations Intellectual History Project was launched in mid-1999 to fill a gaping hole in the literature about the world organization. The project is analyzing the origins and evolution of the history of ideas cultivated within the United Nations family of organizations and of their impact on wider thinking and international action. Certain aspects of the UN’s economic and social activities have of course been the subject of books and articles; but there is no comprehensive intellectual history of the world organization’s contributions to setting the past, present, or future international agenda. This project is examining the evolution of key ideas and concepts about international economic and social development born or nurtured under United Nations auspices. Their origins are being traced and the motivations behind them as well as their relevance, influence, and impact are being assessed against the backdrop of the socioeconomic situations of individual countries, the global economy, and major international developments. Indiana University Press will publish fourteen books about human rights and key economic and social ideas central to UN activity. The project also has conducted in-depth oral history interviews with leading contributors to crucial ideas and concepts within the UN system.Excerpts are being published in a volume entitled UN Ideas: Voices from the Trenches and Turrets. For further information, the interested reader should contact: UN Intellectual History Project Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies The CUNY Graduate Center  Fifth Avenue, Suite  New York, New York - -- Tel -- Fax UNHistory@gc.cuny.edu www.unhistory.org ...