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Geneva and the good offices

Geneva, Évian, Cuba, Iran

Key figures: Eisenhower, Khrushchev, Reagan, Gorbachev

HLS (German): Cold War

International Geneva. After the League of Nations (see the 1920 stage), from 1946 the Palais des Nations in Geneva becomes the European headquarters of the UN, although Switzerland will join only in 2002 (see the stage). Dozens of international organisations grow up around it, from the Red Cross to the World Health Organization.

The conferences of 1954 and the 1955 summit. In 1954 the Geneva conference discusses Korea and Indochina and ends the French war in Vietnam. From 18 to 23 July 1955 the heads of government of the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and France meet there for the first time since the war: Eisenhower, Bulganin and Khrushchev, Eden and Faure. It is the first sign of a thaw.

The protecting power. When two states break off relations, Switzerland can represent their interests. During the Second World War it looks after those of 35 countries. In 1961 it takes on the representation of the United States in Cuba, which it keeps until 20 July 2015, and from 1980, after the hostage-taking at the American embassy in Tehran, that of the United States in Iran. In 1962 Swiss diplomacy facilitates the negotiations that lead to the Évian Accords and Algerian independence.

Reagan and Gorbachev (1985). On 19 and 20 November 1985 Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time in Geneva, at the Fleur d’Eau villa and the Soviet mission. The summit produces no concrete agreements, but it paves the way for the nuclear disarmament treaties and the end of the Cold War.

Good offices today. Switzerland still holds several protecting power mandates and hosts peace talks and summits, such as the meeting between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin in Geneva on 16 June 2021. Discreet diplomacy remains one of the ways in which the country interprets its neutrality.
Two men in suits seated in armchairs in front of a lit fireplace, in a drawing room with paintings on the walls
Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev at their first meeting at the Fleur d’Eau villa in Geneva, 19 November 1985

White House Photographic Office, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Black-and-white photo of men in suits seated at a long table with microphones and papers
The American delegation at the Big Four summit in Geneva, July 1955: in the centre Secretary of State John Foster Dulles

United States Government, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Large pale classical building with tall square pillars and lawns, under a blue sky
The Palais des Nations in Geneva, European headquarters of the UN, 2014

Photo Vassil, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0