North Atlantic Treaty
The North Atlantic Treaty, also referred to as the Washington Treaty, is the treaty that forms the legal basis of, and is implemented by, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949. Background The treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949 by a committee which was chaired by US diplomat Theodore Achilles. Earlier secret talks had been held at the Pentagon between 22 March and 1 April 1948, of which Achilles said: The talks lasted about two weeks and by the time they finished, it had been secretly agreed that there would be a treaty, and I had a draft of one in the bottom drawer of my safe. It was never shown to anyone except Jack John_D._Hickerson">Hickerson.html" ;"title="John_D._Hickerson.html" ;"title="nowiki/>John D. Hickerson">Hickerson">John_D._Hickerson.html" ;"title="nowiki/>John D. Hickerson">Hickerson I wish I had kept it, but when I left the Department in 1950, I dutifully left it in the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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NATO Members (blue)
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is an international military alliance that consists of 30 member states from Europe and North America. It was established at the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949. North_Atlantic_Treaty#Article_5, Article 5 of the treaty states that if an armed attack occurs against one of the member states, it shall be Collective defense, considered an attack against all members, and other members shall assist the attacked member, with armed forces if necessary. North_Atlantic_Treaty#Article_6, Article 6 of the treaty limits the scope of Article 5 to the islands north of the Tropic of Cancer, the North American and European mainlands, the entirety of Turkey, and French Algeria. As such, an attack on Hawaii, Puerto Rico, French Guiana, Ceuta, or Melilla, among other places, would not trigger an Article 5 response. Of the 30 member countries, 28 are in Europe and two in North America. Between 1994 and 1997, wider forums for regional co ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ratification
Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent that lacked the authority to bind the principal legally. Ratification defines the international act in which a state indicates its consent to be bound to a treaty if the parties intended to show their consent by such an act. In the case of bilateral treaties, ratification is usually accomplished by exchanging the requisite instruments, and in the case of multilateral treaties, the usual procedure is for the depositary to collect the ratifications of all states, keeping all parties informed of the situation. The institution of ratification grants states the necessary time-frame to seek the required approval for the treaty on the domestic level and to enact the necessary legislation to give domestic effect to that treaty. The term applies to private contract law, international treaties, and constitutions in federal states such as the United States and Canada. The term is also used in parliamentary procedure in deliberati ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Plenipotentiary
A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of his or her sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the word ''plenipotentiary'' can also refer to any person who has full powers. When used an adjective, ''plenipotentiary'' describes something which confers full powers, such as an edict or an assignment. Diplomats Before the era of rapid international transport or essentially instantaneous communication (such as telegraphy in the mid-19th century and then radio), diplomatic mission chiefs were granted full (''plenipotentiary'') powers to represent their government in negotiations with their host nation. Conventionally, any representations made or agreements reached with a plenipotentiary would be recognized and complied with by their government. Historically, the common generic term for high diplomats of the crown or state was ''minister''. It t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Eelco Van Kleffens
Eelco Nicolaas van Kleffens (17 November 1894 – 17 June 1983) was a Dutch politician and diplomat. Biography Eelco van Kleffens descended from an old Frisian family of public servants. He was the son of Henricus Cato and Jeannette Frésine (Veenhoven) van Kleffens. His younger brother Adrianus van Kleffens would later become a judge at the European Court of Justice. He married Margaret Helen Horstmann on 4 April 1935. After receiving a Doctor of Laws degree from Leiden University, van Kleffens worked in the Secretariat of the League of Nations. He became secretary to the Directorate of Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. in 1920. He was appointed Assistant Director of the Legal Section of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1922 and of the Diplomatic Section in 1927, becoming Director of the latter in 1929. In the early 1930s he was also Secretary-General of The Hague Academy of International Law. Van Kleffens was appointed the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1939, weeks ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dirk Stikker
Dirk Uipko Stikker (5 February 1897 – 23 December 1979) was a Dutch politician and diplomat of the defunct Liberal State Party (LSP), co-founder of the defunct Freedom Party (PvdV) and of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), and businessman. Stikker was known for his abilities as a manager and negotiator. Stikker continued to comment on political affairs as a statesman until his death. He holds the distinction as the first Secretary General of NATO from the Netherlands. Biography Early life Born in Winschoten, he studied law at the University of Groningen. After his studies he began a career in the banking sector. In 1935, he became director of Heineken International, the famous beer company. He held this post until 1948. In 1945, he was among the organizers of the Stichting van de Arbeid (Dutch Labour Foundation), thus helping to lay the foundation of post-war collective bargaining in the Netherlands. Career From 1922 until 1926, Stikker worked as a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Joseph Bech
Joseph Bech (17 February 1887 – 8 March 1975)Thewes, Guy"Les gouvernements du Grand-Duché depuis 1848." Service information et presse. Luxembourg: Imprimerie Centrale, 2011. was a Luxembourgish politician and lawyer. He was the 15th Prime Minister of Luxembourg, serving for eleven years, from 16 July 1926 to 5 November 1937. He returned to the position after World War II, and served for another four years, from 29 December 1953 until 29 March 1958. The 1982–1983 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour. Career Bech studied law at Fribourg and Paris before he received his doctorate in law in 1912, and qualified as a lawyer in 1914. The same year, on 30 June, he was elected to the Luxembourgish Chamber of Deputies for the newly-founded Party of the Right, representing the Canton of Grevenmacher. On 15 April 1921, Bech was appointed to Émile Reuter's cabinet, holding the positions of Director-General for the Interior and Director-General for Educat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alberto Tarchiani
Alberto Tarchiani (11 November 1885 – 30 November 1964) was an Italian journalist, politician, and diplomat. Biography Born in Rome, Tarchiani studied at La Sapienza, at the University of Genoa and at the University of Florence The University of Florence (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'', UniFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The first universi ..., and started working as a journalist in 1903. In 1907 he moved to New York, where he edited the weekly magazine ''Il Cittadino''. In 1915 he returned to Italy to serve as a voluntary in the Italian Army in World War I. In 1919 he was employed by ''Corriere della Sera'', remaining there until 1925, when because of his opposition to Fascism he was forced to emigrate in France.Aldo Garosci (1949).Tarchiani, Alberto. ''Enciclopedia Italiana - II Appendice''. Treccani. In Paris, Tarchiani was among the found ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Carlo Sforza
Count Carlo Sforza (24 January 1872 – 4 September 1952) was an Italian diplomat and anti-fascist politician. Life and career Sforza was born at Lucca, the second son of Count Giovanni Sforza (1846-1922), an archivist and noted historian from Montignoso, Tuscany, and Elisabetta Pierantoni, born in a family of rich silk merchants. His father was a descendant of the Counts of Castel San Giovanni, an illegitimate branch of the House of Sforza who had ruled the Duchy of Milan in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. At the death of his older brother in 1936, Carlo inherited the hereditary title of Count granted to their father in 1910. The Count was a member of the ancient Sforza dynasty, descendant from a branch of the Dukes of Milan, and related to the Pallavicini family as well as other Italian families such as the Medici and Orsini. His wife Valentina Errembault de Dudzeele (1875 - 1969) was from an old and noble Belgian family. After graduating in law from the Unive ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Thor Thors
Thor Thors (26 November 1903 – 11 January 1965) was an Icelandic lawyer, ambassador in the US, and Iceland's first Permanent Representative at the United Nations. He was the son of Thor Jensen, the influential entrepreneur, counting among his siblings the leading Icelandic politician Ólafur Thors. Life Thor graduated from Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík and was the president of its student society '' Framtíðin'' in 1921. He graduated in law from the University of Iceland and undertook postgraduate studies in economics in Cambridge and Paris before deciding to work as the director of the family fishing company Kveldúlfur hf. Thor did this from 1927 to 1934. From 1933 to 1941 he was a member of the Icelandic parliament for the Independence Party for the Snæfell constituency. In 1940 he served as the Icelandic ambassador in the US and from 1946 to 1965 he was Iceland's first Permanent Representative to the United Nations. In 1952, he presented the gavel to the United Nations Pr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bjarni Benediktsson (born 1908)
Bjarni Benediktsson (30 April 1908 – 10 July 1970) was an Icelandic politician of the Independence Party who served as prime minister of Iceland from 1963 to 1970. His father, (1877–1954), was a leader in the independence movement in Iceland and a member of the Althingi from 1908 to 1931. Bjarni studied constitutional law and became a professor at the University of Iceland at age 24. He was elected to the city council in Reykjavík in 1934 as a member of the Independence Party and from 1940 to 1947 was mayor of the city. In 1947 he became Foreign Minister and served in various posts in cabinets until 1956. Bjarni was mainly responsible for Iceland joining NATO in 1949, against significant opposition, and for giving the United States Air Force a lease on Keflavík Airport near Reykjavík, which was of major strategic importance during the Cold War. Bjarni was caricatured by the Nobel prize winning writer Halldór Laxness in his 1948 play ' (The Atom Station). In 1956, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Henri Bonnet
Henri Bonnet (26 May 1888 Châteauponsac ( Haute-Vienne) – 25 October 1978 Paris) was a French politician, diplomat, and French ambassador to the United States from 1944 to 1954. The son of J. Th. and Marie Thérèse (Lascoux) Bonnet; he was educated at the Lycées of Tours and Paris; the University of Paris; École Normale Supérieure, Paris 1921. He was married to Hellé Zervoudaki. He was foreign editor for "Ere Nouvelle" in 1919; Director, International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, 1931-40. He was a member of the secretariat of the League of Nations from 1921 to 1931. He was Information Commissioner in the French Committee of National Liberation The French Committee of National Liberation (french: Comité français de Libération nationale) was a provisional government of Free France formed by the French generals Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle to provide united leadership, organi ... (CFLN), and the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Robert Schuman
Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Robert Schuman (; 29 June 18864 September 1963) was a Luxembourg-born French statesman. Schuman was a Christian Democrat (Popular Republican Movement) political thinker and activist. Twice Prime Minister of France, a reformist Minister of Finance and a Foreign Minister, he was instrumental in building postwar European and trans-Atlantic institutions and was one of the founders of the European Union, the Council of Europe and NATO. The 1964–1965 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour. In 2021, Schuman was declared venerable by Pope Francis in recognition of his acting on Christian principles. Early life Schuman was born in June 1886 in Clausen, Luxembourg, having his father's German citizenship. His father, Jean-Pierre Schuman (d. 1900), who was a native of Lorraine and was born a French citizen had become a German citizen when Lorraine was annexed by Germany in 1871, and he left to settle in Luxembourg, not far from his native v ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |