1. 1
La paix par les organisations internationales:
David Mitrany et l’approche fonctionnaliste.
Mitrany David, A Working Peace System. An Argument for the Functional
Development of International Organization,
London, The Royal Institute for International Affairs,
Oxford University Press, 1943, 60p.
Cours de C. Tenenbaum, Sciences Po Lille

2. Claude, Inis L.
Swords into Plowshares; the Problems and Progress of International Organization.
4 éd. New York: Random House, 1971.
2
It is conceivable that, in the perspective of history, the
mid-twentieth century will be primarily regarded,
not as an era of cold war and deep divisive
conflict, but as the time when the world began
actively to grow together and to develop the
capacity for formulating a common agenda and a
collective approach to its central problem.

3. Eléments de contexte
3
 David Mitrany (1888-1975)
 Journaliste, professeur d’université, diplomate.
 A Working Peace System (WPS), publié par le RIIA
en 1943.
 Large diffusion (rééditions, traductions en Italien,
norvégien, danois).
 Nouvelle publication en 1966 avec préface de
Hans Morgenthau.

4. Hans Morgenthau
4
 « Modern technology has rendered the nation state
obsolete as a principle of political organisation; for
the nation state is no longer able to perform what is
the elementary function of any political
organisation: to protect the lives of its members and
their way of life »

5. Hans Morgenthau
5
 The more enlightened statesmen of Europe and
Africa are aware of the contradiction between this
fragmentation and the rational requirements of the
age, which call for the amalgamation of nation-
states into larger supran-national entities. The
attempts at creating a united Europe testify to this
awareness; do do many – albeit abortive –
initiatives at merging a number of African states
into larger units.

6. Repenser la paix… et la guerre
6
 « process of continuous social adjustment and
settlement called peaceful change ».
 Une approche « réaliste », « concrète » et
« pragmatique ».
 « L’alternative fonctionnelle »
 Stratégie des « nécessités » et des « besoins
communs »
 Renouveler la conception de la sécurité

7. David Mitrany, A WPS, 1943
7
 A new sens of peace : not a peace that would keep
the nations quietly apart but a peace that would
bring them activley together, not the old static and
strategic view but a social view of peace.
 Every activity organized in that way would be a
layer of peaceful like; and a sufficient addition of
them would create increasingly deep and wide
strata of peace.

8. Transcender l’Etat et les frontières
8
 Un constat : L’Etat dépassé
 Renouveler la notion de souveraineté politique
 Transcender les frontières
 Favoriser les relations d’interdépendances

9. David Mitrany, A WPS, 1943
9
 The whole trend of modern government (…) is to
organize government along the lines of specific
ends and needs, and according to the conditions of
their time and place, in lieu of the traditional
organization on the basis of a set consitutional
division of jurisdiction and of rights and powers.

10. David Mitrany, A WPS, 1943
10
 The only sound sense of peaceful change is to do
internationally what it [The State] does nationally:
to make changes of frontiers unnecessary by
making frontiers meaningless through the continuous
development of common activities and interests
across them.

11. David Mitrany, A WPS, 1943
11
 (…) one might say indeed that the true task of
peaceful changes is to remove the need and the
wish for changes of frontiers. The functional
approach may be justifiably expected to do
precisely that : (…) making frontiers lines
meaningless by overlaying them with a natural
growth of common activities and common
administrative agencies.

12. David Mitrany, A WPS, 1943
12
 Instead of breaking up government mechanically
into a pyramid of subordinate territorial aras, we
need for our new ends rather to dissect its tasks
and relevant authorities on lines that correspond to
and fit those tasks.

13. David Mitrany, A WPS, 1943
13
 Could such functions be organized internationally
without a comprehensive political framework? Let it
be said, first, that the functional method as such is
neither incompatible with a general constitutional
framework nor precludes its coming into being.

14. David Mitrany, A WPS, 1943
14
 (…) No country need to be forced to come in, no country
would be forced to stay out. Countries would come in for
those functional activities in which they would be entitle to
participate by the weight of their interests and resources,
but all countries would benefit from the performance of a
general service(…). On the other hand, noone would share
power who did not share in responsibility. This good
democratic postulate could be reinforce by democratic
representation; the functional structure could be made a real
union of peoples, not of states, but of the people directly
concerned in any specific function, by giving them functional
representation somewhat on the lines of the governing organ
of the ILO.

15. Fonctionnalisme / Néo-fonctionnalisme
15
 Le mécanisme de « spill-over » (Ernst B. Haas)
 Un « semi-fonctionnalisme » ? (David Mitrany)
 Un « stratagème » (A. J. R. Groom)

16. Critiques et limites
16
 Le postulat des causes matérielles de la guerre
 « First things first » (Inis Claude)
 Innovation ou illusion ?
 Le contexte de guerre froide et la convergence des
intérêts des grandes puissances
 Le contexte de guerre froide et le retour de l’Etat
 Le fonctionnalisme au service du développement ?
 La nature des régimes politiques (dépolitisation des
enjeux).
 Le jeu des organisations internationales et des Etats.

17. Documents distribués
17
 Le système des Nations Unies (organigramme)
 Extrait de Mitrany, David. A Working Peace
System. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1966.

18. Références bibliographiques
18
 Devin, Guillaume. “« Que reste-t-il du fonctionnalisme international ? Relire David
Mitrany (1888-1975) ».” Critique internationale 01/03, no. 38 (2008): 137-152.
 ———. Faire la paix : la part des institutions internationales. Collection Chaos
international. Paris: Pepper, 2005.
 Groom, A. J. R, et Paul Graham Taylor. Functionalism: Theory and Practice in
International Relations. New York: Crane, Russak, 1975.
 Haas, Ernst B. Beyond the Nation-State: Functionalism and International Organization.
Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1964.
 ———. The Uniting of Europe; Political, Social, and Economical Forces, 1950-1957.
The Library of world affairs no. 42. London: Stevens, 1958.
 Mitrany, David. A Working Peace System. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1966.
 Taylor, Paul Graham, et A. J. R Groom. International Organisation: A Conceptual
Approach. London: F. Pinter, 1978.
 ———. The United Nations at the Millennium: The Principal Organs. London:
Continuum, 2000.