2013 MJC H1 History

MJC/ JC2 PRELIM EXAMS 2013/ H1 HISTORY 8814 1 MERIDIAN JUNIOR COLLEGE JC 2 Preliminary Examination 2013 Higher 1 ___________________________________________________________________ H1 History 8814/01 International History, 1945 - 2000 19 September 2013 3 Hours ___________________________________________________________________ READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST Write your name and civics group clearly on all the work you hand in. Write in dark blue or black ball point pen on both sides of the paper. Write the number of the question that you are attempting in the margin of every sheet of paper used. Start each question on a fresh sheet of paper. At the end of the examination, fasten this cover sheet and all your answers (in chronological order) securely together. Section A Answer Question 1. Section B Answer any three questions. All questions in this paper carry 25 marks. You are reminded of the need for good English and clear presentation in your answers. Question Marks Total ___________________________________________________________________ This document consists of 4 printed pages. 100

MJC/ JC2 PRELIM EXAMS 2013/ H1 HISTORY 8814 2 SECTION A You must answer Question 1. THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1. Read the sources and then answer the question which follows. Source A A few days before the UN General Assembly was due to convene, an official from a Third World country said to me: “I don’t care if it’s illegal, we’ve got the votes.” This echoed almost exactly a comment made by a US representative at the UN in 1959. Some procedural decisions taken by the UN General Assembly last November certainly had a distinctly partisan flavor. The first arose from the growing frustration at the UN’s seeming impotence with regard to South Africa, including South Africa’s continued presence in Namibia and her military assistance to the Rhodesia Front regime. Sydney D. Bailey, “Some Procedural Problems in the UN General Assembly” in The World Today, Jan 1975 Source B There was a generally accepted view that the Cold War had held the UN hostage and frustrated its ability to function effectively. However, this perception may have been an exaggeration, as during the post-Cold War era the UN has had similar problems of controlling the domination of the USA, and has shown itself limited in achieving collective security through military action. Perhaps the Cold War was a ‘smoke-screen’ and the fundamental weakness of the United Nations is, and always was, the unwillingness of states to hand over some degree of sovereignty to an international organization. Adapted from Rogers and Thomas, ‘20 th Century World: The Cold War’, 2008 Source C Over the years since 1945, the United Nations has reflected the world outside. The Cold War between the Great Powers was being played out in the Security Council, where the USA and its capitalist allies had a built-in ma jority. Therefore the veto was used frequently by the USSR. Similarly, in the General A ssembly, Western influence was dominant because so many of its members dared not offend the USA. They were dependent on American dollar aid. Certainly, to many Communist countries, the United Nations appeared little more than a puppet of the American Government. The non-admission of China served only to prove this fact. A Russian historian’s view of the United Nations, 1995

MJC/ JC2 PRELIM EXAMS 2013/ H1 HISTORY 8814 3 Source D United Nations General Assembly resolution 181 (II) of 29 November 1947 denied the most fundamental national right to the Palestinian people – by providing for the partition of Palestine into two states on the basis of vague ethnic assumptions and discriminatory policies along the lines of the legally invalid “Balfour Declaration” and its incorporation into the League of Nations’ Mandate. The Palestinians had never been consulted in this process; new political structures had de facto been imposed on them. In strictly legal terms, the General Assembly had no authority to divest the Palestinians of their sovereignty over the areas of Palestine which it allocated to the Jewish state. The United Nations Organization, whether represented by the General Assembly, the Security Council or the International Court of Justice, has no legal competence to abrogate the sovereignty of whichever people over its land. Dr. Hans Koechler, “The Palestine Problem in the Framework of International Law”, 2000 Source E The focus of our analysis is on US aid and its effects on voting patterns in the UN General Assembly over the period 1973-2002. Compared to other bilateral donors, the United States is widely believed to be less altruistic in allocating aid. Apart from pursuing economic interests, US aid is supposed to be used to buy political support from recipient countries…our results provide strong evidence that US aid has indeed bought voting compliance. More specifically, the results suggest that general budget support and grants are the major aid categories with which recipients have been induced to vote in line with the United States. When replicating the results for the other G7 countries, however, we did not find a similar pattern. Dreher, Nunnenkamp and Rainer Thiele, “Does US Aid Buy UN General Assembly Votes? A Disaggregated Analysis” in Public Choice, Feb 2008 . Now answer the following question: How far do Sources A to E show that the issue of voting was the reason for the ineffectiveness of the General Assembly in the period 1945 to 2000?

MJC/ JC2 PRELIM EXAMS 2013/ H1 HISTORY 8814 4 SECTION B You must answer three questions from this section. 2 “The Korean War was primarily a defensive war waged by South Korea and its ally.” How far do you agree with this assessment? 3 The end of the Cold War was due more to long term historical developments than to historical agency. How far do you agree with this statement? 4 “Japan’s rise to economic power in the post-WWII era can be traced to the Dodge Plan of 1948.” Discuss. 5 “The greater impact of the Arab-Israeli conflict lies in the Middle East itself.” How far do you agree with this view? 6 To what extent was the outbreak of the Kashmir dispute due to the promotion of nationalistic fervour by Nehru and Jinnah? - End of Paper-