The Speech

At Ohio University, Dag Hammarskjold delivered the speech "The Element of Privacy in Peacemaking" in which he supported the values of private diplomacy in peacemaking. The article is hosted on the United Nations websites. 

To find more about the world political context in which the speech was delivered, please visit the United Nations' website dedicated to Dag Hammarskjold.  This address also contains detailed information on Dag Hammarskjold's work at the UN for every year he occupied the position of Secretary-General.  

Questions on Dag Hammarskjold's Speech "The Element of Privacy in Peacemaking", February 5, 1958:   

• What makes the task of peacemaking different in present time than in the past?
• What is “parliamentary diplomacy”?
• What is the essential difference between the nation and the society of nations (the UN)?
• Dag Hammarskjold says that the UN’s resemblance to a democratic national state has positive and negative aspects. What are those positives and negatives?
• What is the “three-stage operation” which is natural to the UN?
• What are the two important points Dag Hammarskjold stresses about the value of private diplomacy in relation to public debates? 
• List three ways mass media can be misused.
• Dag Hammarskjold speaks directly to his audience when he tells them that they have a responsibility. What is that responsibility?

Questions over the UN website dedicated to Dag Hammraskjold's work:

• On April 10, 1958, Dag Hammarskjold started his second term of office. As he addressed the staff, he explained how everyone can personally arrive at a day “when joy is great and sorrow is small.” What does a person have to do to achieve this?
• What was the UN’s role in helping diffuse the growing hostilities between Lebanon and the United Arab Republic in 1958?
• How large was the International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy that was held in September 1958?
• What important event happened on November 14, 1958 in the General Assembly?
• What occupied Dag Hammarskjold’s time during the holiday season in 1958?