Please join us for a lecture by Alessandro Iandolo, London School of Economics, followed by a discussion led by discussants Malgorzata Mazurek,Columbia University and Tarik Amar, Columbia University.

Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe against the desk at the United Nations General Assembly in 1960 is one of the most famous episodes in the history of the Cold War. It is usually assumed to be a good representation of Soviet relations with the UN: anger, frustration, and ultimately failure. This paper, on the contrary, argues that the USSR played a key role in changing the way the UN operated. Together with the Afro-Asian countries, at the 1960 General Assembly the Soviet Union pushed for reforms that transformed the organisation of peacekeeping missions, the way UN personnel were recruited, and the role of the Secretary-General. Above all, the Soviet Union and the Afro-Asian bloc worked together to produce a landmark document that forever changed our understanding of colonialism and empire.