India and the Dynamics of World Politics

Chapter 1

An Overview of International Organizations

With the founding of the UN on 24 October 1945, a new chapter in the history of world politics was initiated, the roots of which go back to medieval Europe. The Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 was the backdrop against which cooperation between nation states was initiated in the modern sense of the term.²⁴¹ This was followed by Concert of Europe in 1815 and Vienna congress 1848. The present nation state structure which was more or less settled by 1848 (In Europe) gave impetus to cooperate in areas of common interest like post and telecommunication. The result was the establishment of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 1865 and Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 1874. This was followed ...