Defeating the League of Nations A Short History by David Armstrong (Palgrave Macmillan, 1982), Peacekeeping in International Politics by Alan James (Palgrave, 1990), 'The Evolution of United Nations Peacekeeping' by Marrack Goulding, in International Affairs vol.69 (1993), The Evolution of UN Peacekeeping: Case Studies and Comparative Analysis edited by William J Durch (Palgrave Macmillan, 1993), 'Democracies and UN Peacekeeping Operations 1990-1996' by Andreas Andersson, in International Peacekeeping vol.7 (2000). Start studying Explain why Britain joined the League of Nations in 1919. Like the proverbial old soldier, the League never died, but rather faded away. As stated above, the League did not have its own military force; thus, it had to rely on its member nations to provide the troops necessary. Charles Townshend assesses its chances. Revulsion against war and the desire for ‘Never Again’ undoubtedly did much to turn the LNU into a mass popular movement with a membership of more than 400,000 at its peak in 1931. Although Cecil was premature, and his political schemes came to nothing, the Union followed his centrist vision. House, Edward. As you can see, the League of Nations was quite fluid in terms of who joined and who left (or was removed!). Her own book is another valuable addition, along with Ruth Henig’s general survey, Daniel Laqua’s edited volume on interwar internationalism, and the 40-odd papers from some 15 countries presented at last August’s conference at the Graduate Institute at Geneva.(3). The League of Nations was an international organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, created after the First World War to provide a forum for resolving international disputes. Charles Townshend is Professor of International History at Keele University. The League of Nations did not have a policy of appeasement because it was powerless. I freely confess that it was not out of any prior interest in the League itself, of whose history I knew little other than the standard textbook narrative of high hopes in the 1920s dashed by international crisis in the 1930s. It does not challenge the main conclusions of Donald Birn’s pioneering 1981 study (4), but does broaden and deepen it. (6) It did establish links with the British Legion, and recruited heavily on Armistice Day. 6. ... which the League did not have. There is no other way to do it than by a universal league of nations, and what is proposed is a universal league of nations. Her most interesting point is that, as something to be filled out at leisure at home, it reflected a feminised approach to politics, and, indeed, women played a major role in organising and carrying it out. In her conclusion McCarthy quotes the reflection of a Branch Secretary: ‘Let us be honest with ourselves. Once big powers started to challenge the status quo, as Japan did in Manchuria, the League found it practically impossible to reach a clear verdict on who was guilty of 'aggression'. The idea of the League was to eliminate four fatal flaws of the old European states: in place of competing monarchical empires - of which the Hapsburg Empire was perhaps the most notorious - the principle of national self-determination would create a world of independent nation states, free of outside interference; the secret diplomacy of the old order would be replaced by the open discussion and resolution of disputes; the military alliance blocs would be replaced by a system of collective guarantees of security; and agreed disarmament would prevent the recurrence of the kind of arms race that had racked up international tensions in the pre-war decade. But workers who did join often felt patronised and talked down to. 'Grip' ultimately meant the capacity to use force. (8) The centrism of the LNU was a reflection of the times in which it emerged. (13) This contrasts sharply with the bland, almost feel-good statement with which McCarthy ends her book: the League of Nations Union ‘succeeded … in persuading Britain’s quiet citizens to recognise foreign affairs as their own intimate concern and international government as a cause which deserved their support, and perhaps even, on occasion to break their silence in order to say as much’ (p. 253). The League of Nations, born of the destruction and disillusionment arising from World War One, was the most ambitious attempt that had ever been made to construct a peaceful global order. McCarthy’s strength is in her attempt to ask new questions and to try different approaches to the development of a popular movement, but other historians’ questions about issues and high politics are also still worth asking. Lloyd’s conclusion is trenchant: ‘the hope that British public opinion could play an important role in the making of foreign policy had proved to be ill-founded’. There was a widespread belief, or hope, that the League's prestige was growing incrementally. 2) Germany was suffering greatly and turned to the Nazis. America was not a member. THE purely idealistic reasons for joining the League of Nations have been dwelt upon in abundance of detail; and, with arguments of equal loftiness, certain very great nations have declared that if they did not join it was solely in order that they might preserve their liberty and thus render still more service to humanity. Her claim that the Geneva Protocol of 1924 was ‘milder’ than the Treaty of Mutual Assistance of 1923 (p. 22) is unsupported by evidence or analysis, and is simply incorrect. The UN's first attempt to resolve a serious conflict, in Palestine in 1947-8, was unsuccessful, even disastrous: it failed to implement its own partition plan, and its special mediator was assassinated.  © Dismayed by the overall results, but hopeful that a strong League could prevent future wars, he returned to present the Treaty of Versailles to the Senate. As my book tries to show, there is a huge amount more to be said about the LNU as a presence in inter-war associational life and as an interlocutor in debates about the quality of British democracy, the meanings attached to ‘good citizenship’, and the educability of the mass electorate. Some, like the observer force in Kashmir, have remained active for 50 years: not evidence of brilliant success, admittedly, but evidence of hard necessity and a degree of usefulness at least. Asquith to Lady Venetia Stanley 12 March 1915, in. A league for all nations? I was (and remain) a historian of Britain – and of the British domestic social and political scene at that, rather than of British foreign policy. Journal DOI: 10.14296/RiH/issn.1749.8155 | Cookies | Privacy | Contact Us.  © Only two nations are for the time being left out. The League of Nations, abbreviated as LON (French: Société des Nations [sɔsjete de nɑsjɔ̃], abbreviated as SDN or SdN), was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. One of the largest voluntary organisations of its time, the LNU was confronted head-on with the challenges of speaking to a mass democracy, of mobilising an electorate containing millions of new voters, and of getting its message about international cooperation across using multi-media platforms. How did it change the way ordinary voters participated in politics, or expressed themselves politically? This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. 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