From UPU

The upcoming UPU historians’ colloquium presents the first-ever opportunity for the postal and academic communities to come together to reflect on the global past of the UPU.

UPU News spoke with Historian at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), UMR SIRICE, one of the colloquium’s co-organizers, Dr. Léonard Laborie about how and why the UPU emerged as a forerunner of global connectivity, how it shaped and was shaped by international politics, and why cooperation among postal operators will remain the key to the organization’s lasting vitality.

Among the topics discussed:

• How the post and telecommunications became a testing ground for global multilateral governance 150 years ago
• International postal cooperation in the context of globalization
• The UPU as part of the United Nations System
• Postal cooperation in times of conflict and war
• The UPU’s first historians’ colloquium
• The UPU’s future in the era of digitalization and e-commerce

…and more

The evolution of cross-border communication has undoubtedly shaped the world as we know it today. The fast increase and diversification of communication flows, socioeconomic globalization, and growing migration and mobility would hardly sustain without innovative political arrangements and new ways of international cooperation.

 In 1874, the newly founded Universal Postal Union not only harmonized these processes, making exchanges easier, cheaper and safer, but, together with the International Telegraph Union, stood at the origin of global multilateral governance. Throughout years, the UPU endured crises, wars, economic instability, health, climate, and other types of emergencies, while working to keep its original promise of facilitating communication between peoples in the face of a rapidly changing world.