Old Wine in New Bottles? Refugees, Relief, and Reconstruction in 1945

This paper will explore whether and how ideas and practices of international refugee care and relief changed in the period between the outbreak of the Second World War and the early years of the Cold War. By evaluating the work of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), it will assess how visions of the international order developed between 1942, when UNRRA was conceived, and 1948, when its last staff contracts were terminated.

The post-war era long fell into the gap between studies of the war on one hand, and Cold War histories on the other. Drawing upon a range of archival sources this paper will examine UNRRA's ambitions in the context of changing assessments of the world order after 1945, and thereby challenge the notion of a clear progression from Second World War to Marshall Plan. It will argue that UNRRA was not just a vehicle for bringing much-needed supplies and services to displaced populations and war-ridden areas, but also for thinking about national and international reconstruction and the political functions of relief, and for defining longer-term trajectories of the twentieth century. It brought into focus a number of long-running debates about questions such as the comprehensiveness of the refugee status, the feasibility of national sovereignty, the role of the United States in the international landscape, the problem of technical expertise, the future of international governance, and prospects for the development of underdeveloped areas in Europe and beyond.