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This updated and revised second edition examines the conceptualisation and evolution of peace in International Relations (IR) theory. The book examines the concept of peace and its usage in the main theoretical debates in IR, including realism, liberalism, constructivism, critical theory, and post-structuralism, as well as in the more direct debates on peace and conflict studies. It explores themes relating to culture, development, agency, and structure, not just in terms of representations of IR, and of peace, but in terms of the discipline of IR itself. The work also specifically explores the recent mantras associated with liberal and neoliberal versions of peace, which appear to have become foundational for much of the mainstream literature and for doctrines for peace and development in the policy world. Analysing war has often led to the dominance – and mitigation – of violence as a basic assumption in, and response to, the problems of IR. This study aims to redress this negative balance by arguing that the discipline offers a rich basis for the study of peace, which has advanced significantly over the last century or so. It also proposes innovative theoretical dimensions of the study of peace, with new chapters discussing post-colonial and digital developments.

International Trade, 1953: A report on international trade developments during 1953 was issued by GATT in June 1954. During the year 1953, a significant change had occurred in the prevailing post-1950 pattern of trade; the unfavorable position of the western European industrial areas with the accompanying dollar deficits had been largely redressed, with a gradual reversion to the pre-Korean price structure. Important shifts in the flow of goods between the industrial areas had contributed to a more balanced trade pattern than at any other time in the post-war period. The level of trade among the three non-industrial areas had remained remarkably constant, but there had been a significant slowing down of the exchange of goods between the areas producing primary products and the industrial areas of the world; while the volume of exports of the primary producers had increased, the prices of their commodities had fallen to an extent that made export proceeds decline heavily. However, there had been an intensification of exchanges between each industrial area and the particular primary producing region with which it was most closely associated.

The Annual Report of the Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1952 was presented to the Board of Governors by its chairman (Rooth) on June 24, 1952. The report indicated that, despite a remarkable growth in production and one widespread adjustment of exchange rates over the previous seven years, international payments were still far from having attained a state of balance and exchange difficulties and restrictions existed again over large parts of the world, for countries constituting a large part of the world had followed policies aimed at achieving higher levels of consumption and investment than could be covered out of real resources available. This had resulted in a situation of inflationary pressures that in certain countries had been aggravated by rearmament programs, pressures which created excessive demands for imports and reduced the quantities of goods available for export. In this situation the use of exchange restrictions and quantitative import controls, frequently of a discriminatory nature, seemed inevitable to many countries; and during the past year there had been a tendency to extend and intensify these restrictions and controls.

From December 8 to 11, 1948, the 107th session of the Governing Body of the International Labor Organization was held in Geneva. The Governing Body undertook to administer programs in the field of job-training and workers migration, activities urged on ILO by the Organization for European Economic Cooperation and by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. These were new activities for ILO, which had hitherto confined itself to studies and consultations but had not undertaken administrative responsibility. The Governing Body decided to review four of the nine labor conventions adopted by the 28th International Labor (Maritime) Conference in 1946. At the 32nd session of the Conference at Geneva in June conventions covering social security for seafarers, paid vacations, accommodations for crews, and wages and hours were to be discussed with a view to possible revision. It was decided to establish a field office on technical training in Asia, to appoint a tripartite committee or governing body of technical training experts to meet periodically on manpower problems, and to hold a conference of experts on technical training in Asia in the near future.

The 45th session of the International Labor Conference was held in Geneva from June 7 to 29, 1961, under the presidency of Mr. M. A. Raschid (government delegate and Minister of Industry, Mines, and Labor, Burma). The Conference was attended by over a thousand delegates, observers, and advisers from 94 member countries and four territories, including the ministers of labor from 42 of these countries.

It was reported on March 16, 1958, that the government of the Netherlands had informed the International Monetary Fund that it no longer required its $68,750,000 stand-by arrangement, in view of the improved reserve position of the Netherlands Bank. Accordingly, the arrangement, which was to have continued for one year from September 12, 1957, was cancelled as of the close of business on March 11.

A new exchange office was established in March by the International Monetary Fund to keep track of all new exchange restrictions imposed by member countries and to record changes in currency regulations. The office had no policing powers but was to remain in constant touch with officials in all member countries and to maintain files for consultation by bankers, foreign traders and others interested in foreign currency regulations.

In March 1949 it was announced that Ethiopia and the Union of South Africa had ratified the International Telecommunication Convention. The convention had also been ratified by the Byelorussian SSR and the Ukrainian SSR but with reservations on article 18. The Argentine Republic approved the documents signed at the Administrative Radio Conference, Atlantic City, 1947, and authorized their administrative application from January 1, 1949.

In June 1948 the International Monetary Fund reported that its activities during the preceding nine months had been focused on offering temporary financial assistance to its members for monetary stabilization operations and on consultation on exchange problems. The Fund had prepared several special studies for member nations and had sent missions of technical advice and expert assistance to a number of countries.