Rebuilding the Postwar Order: Peace, Security and the UN-System

In the aftermath of the Second World War, bureaucrats, politicians, and diplomats across the Grand Alliance set out to reconstruct a peaceful global order, certain that planning was the key to success. Between 1941 and 1951, a sprawling, ambitious, multi-layered, and not always coherent postwar blueprint was conceived and implemented.

In Rebuilding the Postwar Order, Francine McKenzie sets this plan in an international context, arguing the instrumental importance of international organizations in ensuring the security of nations and people and creating conditions of global prosperity.The process of planning for peace is often submerged in histories of the Second World War, while historical analysis of the Cold War has cast doubt on the very idea of a postwar period. By demonstrating how the institutions and structures laid out during and after the war remain largely in place, altered but still largely committed to their original goals, McKenzie restores this postwar period and shows its enduring relevance.This study examines the key architects of the postwar world, the negotiations that resulted in treaties, agreements,declarations and organizations, and draws out the ideas, experiences, and interests that shaped the postwar design. Finally, it tackles core issues that explain the workings of postwar international relations including leadership,the authority of nation-states, and the relationship between power and rules in the international community.