Frederick S. Arkhurst
African Diplomacy: The UN Experience deals with some of the many issues, affecting Africa, which came before the United Nations in the immediate, post-independence period. Of major importance were the establishment of the Economic Commission for Africa, and the revocation of the Mandate which conferred on South Africa responsibility for the administration of the Trusteeship Territory of South West Africa.
The book also deals with some policy issues not strictly within the ambit of the United Nations, but which were of special international significance, such as the interminable controversy regarding Chinese representation in the United Nations (1950-1967), the Commonwealth initiative to end the conflict in Vietnam, and the complexities of multilateral diplomacy. The final chapter “Reflections on Some Contemporary Issues” discusses current issues of topical interest, including the effect of the Cold War on diplomatic practice, globalization, economic development, foreign aid, peacekeeping, and the failure of party politics in Africa.
While the episodes dealt with in the book are not all in strict chronological order, they have been arranged to enable the flow of the narrative without departing unduly from the general chronology of the events.
In his long career in the Ghana public service, Frederick S. Arkhurst held various senior positions including: Head of the Ghana Foreign Service, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Ghana to the United Nations, Member of the Government Committee for Policy Development and Review, in which capacity he was responsible for international economic policy.
He also held a number of international appointments: Director of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities – West Africa Office, Lagos - where he was responsible for United Nations population programs in West Africa. He was Director of United Nations Training Programs in Diplomacy in Kampala and Dakar, and designed and conducted courses in diplomacy for Foreign Service officers from developing countries. He was Senior Adviser to the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm (1971 – 1972).
His academic experience include a Fellowship at the Harvard University Center for International Affairs, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Director of African Programs, Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs, Chicago. He was a Vice President of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, New York; and was Visiting Professor of Political Science at Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY), Spring Semester, 1975; and was Senior Fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs, Accra, Ghana {2002).
Publications: Africa in the Seventies and Eighties: Issues in Development; Arms and African Development (Ed.); US Policy Toward Africa (Ed.); Arms and African Development; “Africa: Exploration and Settlement” in Encyclopedia Britannica III (1974); Development Without Aid (2000).
Reaction to the Court’s Judgment
The judgment of the International Court of Justice in the South West Africa case was greeted with dismay throughout the United Nations. Outrage at the judgment was particularly intense among the African delegations. For six long years the international community had waited anxiously for a substantive verdict. It had been clear all along that, on the substance of the case, the South African Government was in violation of the provision of the South West Africa Mandate. Thus the incredible decision of the World Court was, to the African delegations, so lacking in merit, logic or commonsense as to border on the ridiculous. The consensus in the United Nations was that the Court’s action was a gross abdication of its responsibility.
For the African Group there remained three possible courses of action: First, to denounce the Court’s verdict; second, to take steps to increase African representation on the International Court of Justice; third, to act through the General Assembly to terminate the South West Africa Mandate. Accordingly on July 19, 1966 the Permanent Representative of Ghana – this writer – as Chairman of the African Group denounced the verdict of the International Court of Justice at a Press Conference at the United Nations Headquarters. On behalf of the Organization of African Unity, the Ghana Delegate deplored the Court’s decision to dismiss the case against South Africa on a spurious technicality. He pointed out that the decision of the International Court of Justice “would create doubts regarding its integrity, and destroy confidence in international law as an effective means for the achievement of international justice.” The Permanent Representative of Ghana expressed the determination of the African Group to seek to unseat all the incumbent judges of the Court who had voted to dismiss the case against South Africa., should they seek re-election to the International Court of Justice. None of them sought re-election to the Court at the next election in 1967.
