David Mitrany (1888–1975): an appreciation of his life and work

Abstract

David Mitrany was one of the originators, almost the founding father, of the functional approach to world government, and his pragmatic ideas have proved as relevant at the end of this century as when they were first fully expounded in the early 1940s. At that time Mitrany, with many other political thinkers, was concerned with new approaches in planning for the international organization of peace in the postwar world. His advocacy of functionalism was to be effective, even welcomed, in keeping with public demands for the future; and was to be taken into account by those working on the Charter of the new United Nations, in particular in the establishment of its specialized agencies.