The League of Nations & the Un
The League of Nations and the United Nations
By Charles Townshend
Last updated 2009-11-05
The imposition of a peaceful world order was a key objective for the League of Nations, established in the aftermath of World War One. How can its successor, the United Nations, react to the challenges of the 21st century? Charles Townshend assesses its chances.
* The birth of the League ideal * The growth of a system * Death and transfiguration? * A new international age? * The challenge ahead * Find out more
* Print this page
The birth of the League ideal
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. It was rooted in a comprehensive liberal critique of the pre-war international system, which was widely believed to have been the cause of the carnage of 1914-18.
The secret diplomacy of the old order would be replaced by...open discussion
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.
Before this, the closest approach to an international political structure had been the Congress System, in which the European great powers held occasional summit meetings to discuss issues they found urgent. (To his credit, the much-maligned Tsar Nicholas II of Russia had sponsored international efforts to
By Charles Townshend
Last updated 2009-11-05
The imposition of a peaceful world order was a key objective for the League of Nations, established in the aftermath of World War One. How can its successor, the United Nations, react to the challenges of the 21st century? Charles Townshend assesses its chances.
* The birth of the League ideal * The growth of a system * Death and transfiguration? * A new international age? * The challenge ahead * Find out more
* Print this page
The birth of the League ideal
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. It was rooted in a comprehensive liberal critique of the pre-war international system, which was widely believed to have been the cause of the carnage of 1914-18.
The secret diplomacy of the old order would be replaced by...open discussion
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.
Before this, the closest approach to an international political structure had been the Congress System, in which the European great powers held occasional summit meetings to discuss issues they found urgent. (To his credit, the much-maligned Tsar Nicholas II of Russia had sponsored international efforts to