Page 198 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

34.

Geneva International

ARTICLE
BY MR PETROVSKY FOR ONE OF THE MAGAZINES
14

August 1995

W hen it comes to the UN, most of the people imagine the

main Headquarters of the World Organization in New York.
This is not surprising. Anyone who frequently watches tele-
vision news programs is familiar with the U.N. Security Council meeting room
in New York. Few people know, however, that much of the Organization's day-
to-day operations are carried out not from main Headquarters but from its oth-
er centers, most notably from Geneva.

Geneva established a reputation as a world center of multilateral diplomacy a
long while ago. During the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Prince of Talleyrand,
one of the most skillful French diplomats, uttered the following phrase: "There
are five continents: Europe, Asia, America, Africa, and Geneva." Even then,
Geneva's happy destiny made itself felt: the very same year when it tied its fate
to the fate of the Swiss Confederation, it entered the scene of diplomacy. The
history of international Geneva, the European capital of multilateral diplomacy,
goes back to the that allows us to understand the present and bodes well for the
future. Already at the dawn of its history, Geneva, a frequent place of stops and
meetings, turned into a city through which flows of goods, people and ideas
passed. Due to its favorable geographical location, this city-State, small both in
area and in the number of its inhabitants, steadily expanded its sphere of influ-
ence over the centuries.

14 The article was written and archived in Russian. This is the translation by the UN-
licensed translator in a personal capacity, exclusively for this book.

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