ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the changing ramifications of self-determination in the contemporary world. Many new multinational and polyethnic political entities have emerged as powerful forces in the world arena. In this process, the ethical and political principles of self-determination have been transformed into a major political weapon. The process of decolonization, which has radically changed the political map of the world, coincided with the development of the United Nations, though the direct role of the United Nations in this transformation has been modest. Moreover, the United Nations provided the necessary parliamentary framework to experiment with the trade-union style of diplomacy and to organize a kind of small-power pressure group as a countervailing force to humble Western colonialism in international assemblies. In any case, the anti-colonial forces used the parliamentary arena of the United Nations to inflict moral and political humiliation upon Western colonialism, and to challenge its legitimacy.
