David Mitrany

David Mitrany (* 1888, † 1975) was a British political scientist of Romanian origin. His focus was international relations and the problems of the Danube region. He is considered the founder of the theory of functionalism in international relations.

Mitrany was familiar with his work " A Working Peace System" from 1943, whose title meant a peace system that really works. Mitrany turned so against illusionist Federation projects à la Coudenhove- Kalergi that could discourage a prompt and effective peacekeeping. Instead, recommended Mitrany slim functional agencies for settlement of international cooperation at all pertinent, especially technical and economic areas. Mitranys functionalism but also related to domestic, organizational training: on -purpose associations such as the Tennessee Valley Authority or the London Transport Board, in which some independent Union States or sibling local government units coordinated, according to the former rationalization cartels, the British nautical, cotton and steel industry.

The Mitrany often attributed tenet of political functionalism "form follows function " comes not by the way of this, but was taken from the functionalism of industrial design. He served a popularization of Mitranys thinking.

Selected Works

• Romania, her history and politics (1915 )
• Greater Romania: a study in national ideals (1917 )
• The problem of international sanctions (1925 )
• The land and the peasant in Romania: the War and agrarian reform, 1917-1921 (1930 )
• The progress of international government (1933 )
• The effect of the War in southeastern Europe ( 1936)
• A working peace system (1943 )
• The road to security ( 1944)
• American interpretations (1946 )
• World unity and the nations (1950 )
• Marx against the peasant: a study in social dogmatism (1951 )
• Food and freedom (1954 )
• The Prospect of European Integration: Federal or Functional, Journal of Common Market Studies, 1965
• The Functional Theory of Politics. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1975.