Norman Judson Padelford papers

Norman J. Padelford, PhB 1925, Denison University; AM 1928, PhD 1929, Harvard University, was professor of government at Colgate University, 1929-1936, and professor of international law at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 1936-1945. He came to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1944 as professor of international relations to inaugurate courses in this field. He chaired the political science section of what was then the Department of Economics and Social Science, and he was later instrumental in developing a new department of political science at MIT. He retired from MIT in 1969.

Padelford was a consultant to the US State Department from 1942 to 1949 and served as its expert on European waterways. During this time, he was advisor to Secretary of State James Byrnes and was the US delegate to the London Conference on European Inland Transport. He also worked with a group appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to draft the charter of the United Nations. He was a member of the United States delegation at the 1944 Dumbarton Oaks Conference on International Organization in Washington, DC. In 1945 he was executive officer in charge of drafting the statute for the International Court of Justice (known as the World Court) at the United Nations Conference in San Francisco. From 1969 to 1970, he was a member of President Richard Nixon's task force on oceanography.

Padelford's publications include the classic The Dynamics of International Politics. He also served on the board of editors of the journal International Organization from its inception in 1947 to 1968, including many years as chair. Padelford wrote extensively on the United Nations, the Balkans, the Spanish Civil War, and the Panama Canal.