From a history to histories of the United Nations: pathways of international historiography on the global institution

Public debates constantly mention the United Nations for its weakness and inability to maintain its founding commitment to being the institution responsible for maintaining peace on the planet. At the same time, this multifaceted institutional system has long struggled to establish itself as an object of historical research. During the last 20 years, the scientific context has changed, thanks to new historiographical trends that have made scholars more sensitive to a history of international relations focused not only on the history of diplomacy. New research on the UN has analysed other aspects of human affairs, considering increasingly diversified geographies and power relations. The complexity, breadth, and diversity of activities reached by the UN system have made it a privileged environment for the new research agendas that aspire to be more global and plural. This essay proposes a path that tries to retrace and analyse this dynamic area of research, believing that studying the UN can be a potential channel for new research avenues for Italian historiography and a way of further connection to networks of scientific transnational debate.

Keywords: United Nations, International History, Multilateral institutions, Global history, international cooperation, History of development aid and humanitarianism

Mario De Prospo, Da una storia alle storie delle Nazioni unite: Percorsi della storiografia internazionale sull’istituzione globale in "SOCIETÀ E STORIA " 189/2025, pp 673-698, DOI: 10.3280/SS2025-189007