In Defense of Diplomacy

1949 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 404-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Sprout
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Diplomatic History ◽  
World War ◽  
World Organization ◽  
Settlement Of Disputes ◽  
Outlawry Of War

Publication of Politics Among Nations is another important milestone in the development of systematic studies of international political phenomena into an established and recognized branch of higher learning.Comparison of this impressive treatise with any work published before 1914 reveals in dramatic fashion how much ground has already been covered. Before World War I, as Grayson Kirk has described, the study of international relations was largely carried on in the sterile atmosphere of international law and conventionalized diplomatic history. The crusade for the League of Nations opened up a new field and gave great impetus to the study of world organization. This newcomer practically stole the show during the 1920's. But the course of world events did not fulfill the bright hopes fostered by schemes for disarmament, outlawry of war, collective security, judicial settlement of disputes, and codification of international law. Teachers and writers, however, continued to play the same old records, which sounded more and more unconvincing as the dictators prepared the stage for another world war.

Indicators of Cross-National and International Patterns

1969 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Rummel
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
International System ◽  
Diplomatic History ◽  
World War ◽  
World Government ◽  
World Citizenship ◽  
Current Events

Substantive foci in the study of international relations have altered in time with changes in the international system and the coming of academic age of new generations of scholars. Prior to World War I, the central substantive concepts were international law and diplomacy. Historiography was the major method, and, given the nature of the historical approach during this period, few theoretical generalizations emerged.World War I revolutionized the study of international relations. The horrible consequences of this first modern war and the idealistic fervor of the war years were instrumental in overlaying the traditional concepts of international law and diplomacy with two new foci: current events and international organizations. Feeling that the citizen should be made aware of the international world—educated for world citizenship—and that he should be given the guidance that the diplomatic history and international law specialist did not provide, many international relations scholars began to accent contemporary affairs. This new interest, however, had no methodological underpinning except fidelity to the “facts,” and involved few attempts to delineate recurring patterns of events. The “guidance” given to the student often turned out to be little more than special pleading.The focus on international organizations also reflected an internationalistic viewpoint. International organizations were conceived of as the structural beginning of world government and as a mechanism for international understanding and peace. This focus articulated itself in descriptive studies of the structure and rules of international organizations, past and present, and blueprints for their alteration.

scholarly journals The hierarchical society: the politics of self-determination and the constitution of new states after 1919

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 372-396
Author(s):  
Maja Spanu
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Society ◽  
International System ◽  
World Politics ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
World War ◽  
New States ◽  
History Of

International Relations scholarship disconnects the history of the so-called expansion of international society from the presence of hierarchies within it. In contrast, this article argues that these developments may in fact be premised on hierarchical arrangements whereby new states are subject to international tutelage as the price of acceptance to international society. It shows that hierarchies within international society are deeply entrenched with the politics of self-determination as international society expands. I substantiate this argument with primary and secondary material on the Minority Treaty provisions imposed on the new states in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe admitted to the League of Nations after World War I. The implications of this claim for International Relations scholarship are twofold. First, my argument contributes to debates on the making of the international system of states by showing that the process of expansion of international society is premised on hierarchy, among and within states. Second, it speaks to the growing body of scholarship on hierarchy in world politics by historicising where hierarchies come from, examining how diverse hierarchies are nested and intersect, and revealing how different actors navigate these hierarchies.

The League of Nations: a retreat from international law?

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Wertheim
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
World War ◽  
The North ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Hague ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Settlement Of Disputes ◽  
First World

AbstractDuring the First World War, civil society groups across the North Atlantic put forward an array of plans for recasting international society. The most prominent ones sought to build on the Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907 by developing international legal codes and, in a drastic innovation, obligating and militarily enforcing the judicial settlement of disputes. Their ideal was a world governed by law, which they opposed to politics. This idea was championed by the largest groups in the United States and France in favour of international organizations, and they had likeminded counterparts in Britain. The Anglo-American architects of the League of Nations, however, defined their vision against legalism. Their declaratory design sought to ensure that artificial machinery never stifled the growth of common consciousness. Paradoxically, the bold new experiment in international organization was forged from an anti-formalistic ethos – one that slowed the momentum of international law and portended the rise of global governance.

scholarly journals International legal treatment of war

2009 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-243
Author(s):  
Slavko Mrkic
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Relations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
World War ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
The United Nations

In this paper, the author presents and analyses various attempts made by the factors in the international community to define the rules of behavior in waging war as a means of communication among states in resolving their mutual problems. Presenting first the history (several centuries long) of attempts to restrain war waging the author focuses on the endeavors of the League of Nations in the period between the two world wars as well as on the creation of regulations by the United Nations after World War II. The author points out that the United Nations has built a comprehensive system of waging war restraint that, among other things, not only prohibits aggressive war waging, but also any use of armed force or threat of use of force. Some forms of military interventions could be taken only within the UN corresponding procedure. In spite of the fact that the treatment of war is regulated by the law within UN, it is present in the contemporary world as a result of the existing political and economic relations. As the author concludes, war and force keep on being used in practice, sometimes in a very violent way. Thus, they violate the provisions of international law that regulates the rules and treatment of war in international relations. .

Hegemony and International Law

1941 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 1127-1144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Kruszewski
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
First World War ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
World War ◽  
European Continent ◽  
Formidable Challenge ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The World ◽  
World Organization ◽  
First World

In the titanic struggle for leadership in Europe, Great Britain is resisting the most formidable challenge to her supremacy. For centuries, her principal foreign policy was to prevent any establishment of hegemony over the entire European continent. After the first World War, British statesmen, however, were convinced “that they could no longer bear the burden of regulating world affairs alone. They urged a League of Nations…. But national sovereignties were no more prepared to collaborate in a democratic world organization than they had been to submit to British domination. Thus, instead of the League of Nations succeeding to the British imperial hegemony, the world fell into anarchy in a new struggle of several states, each striving to become the dominant Power.”

Nationalism and Internationalism Reconciled

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-53
Author(s):  
Antero Holmila ◽  
Pasi Ihalainen
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
World War I ◽  
New World ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
World War ◽  
National Sovereignty ◽  
World Organization

The carnage of World War I gave rise to liberal visions for a new world order with democratized foreign policy and informed international public opinion. Conservatives emphasized continuity in national sovereignty, while socialists focused on the interests of the working class. While British diplomacy in the construction of the League of Nations has been widely discussed, we focus on contemporary uses of nationalism and internationalism in parliamentary and press debates that are more ideological. We also examine how failed internationalist visions influenced uses of these concepts during World War II, supporting alternative organizational solutions, caution with the rhetoric of democracy and public opinion, and ways to reconcile national sovereignty with a new world organization. The United Nations was to guarantee the interests of the leading powers (including the United States), while associations with breakthroughs of democracy were avoided. Nationalism (patriotism) and internationalism were reconciled with less idealism and more pragmatism.

Sovereignty at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard V. Smith
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International System ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Great Power ◽  
World War ◽  
Treaty Of Versailles ◽  
The World ◽  
Paris Peace Conference

We have long known that the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 “failed” in the sense that it did not prevent the outbreak of World War II. This book investigates not whether the conference succeeded or failed, but the historically specific international system it created. It explores the rules under which that system operated, and the kinds of states and empires that inhabited it. Deepening the dialogue between history and international relations theory makes it possible to think about sovereignty at the conference in new ways. Sovereignty in 1919 was about remaking “the world”—not just determining of answers demarcating the international system, but also the questions. Most histories of the Paris Peace Conference stop with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles with Germany on June 28, 1919. This book considers all five treaties produced by the conference as well as the Treaty of Lausanne with Turkey in 1923. It is organized not chronologically or geographically, but according to specific problems of sovereignty. A peace based on “justice” produced a criminalized Great Power in Germany, and a template problematically applied in the other treaties. The conference as sovereign sought to “unmix” lands and peoples in the defeated multinational empires by drawing boundaries and defining ethnicities. It sought less to oppose revolution than to instrumentalize it. The League of Nations, so often taken as the supreme symbol of the conference’s failure, is better considered as a continuation of the laboratory of sovereignty established in Paris.

Latin America and the League of Nations

1926 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-30
Author(s):  
Percy Alvin Martin
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
Treaty Of Versailles ◽  
Post War ◽  
International Status

To students of international relations it has become almost a commonplace that among the most significant and permanent results of the World War has been the changed international status of the republics of Latin America. As a result of the war and post-war developments in these states, the traditional New World isolation in South America, as well as in North America, is a thing of the past. To our leading sister republics is no longer applicable the half-contemptuous phrase, current in the far-off days before 1914, that Latin America stands on the margin of international life. The new place in the comity of nations won by a number of these states is evidenced—to take one of the most obvious examples—by the raising of the legations of certain non-American powers to the rank of embassies, either during or immediately after the war. In the case of Brazil, for instance, where prior to 1914 only the United States maintained an ambassador, at the present time Great Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, and Japan maintain diplomatic representatives of this rank.Yet all things considered one of the most fruitful developments in the domain of international relations has been the share taken by our southern neighbors in the work of the League of Nations. All of the Latin American republics which severed relations with Germany or declared war against that country were entitled to participate in the Peace Conference. As a consequence, eleven of these states affixed their signatures to the Treaty of Versailles, an action subsequently ratified in all cases except Ecuador.

scholarly journals REALISME DALAM KEPENTINGAN NASIONAL INDONESIA MELALUI FORUM KONFERENSI ASIA AFRIKA (KAA) DAN GERAKAN NON BLOK (GNB)

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (01) ◽  
pp. 123-139
Author(s):  
Taufan Herdansyah Akbar ◽  
Agus Subagyo ◽  
Jusmalia Oktaviani
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Research Team ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Military Power ◽  
World War ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Rational Actor ◽  
Classical Realism

Realism is an approach and paradigm that is in international relations, Realism began to be debated during World War II (World War II) because of the failure of the League of Nations (LBB). LBB is the brainchild of idealists who are considered to have failed to prevent war and create peace. Realism existed even before the paradigm debate which was later called classical realism with one of its characters being Niccolo Machiavelly. Niccolo Maciavelly's style of realism emphasizes that human nature is egositically and creates an anarchic world. In this study the research team wanted to prove that what Niccolo Machiavelly delivered was not merely increasing military power merely to create peace, but negotiation and diplomacy methods were also instruments of the State in achieving its national interests in realism like Indonesia. The national interests of Indonesia are everything for Indonesian politicians and the existence and power of Indonesia is the goal of Indonesia's interests to avoid war. Therefore Indonesia must have played its role in the Asian-African Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement at that time as an instrument of achieving national interests in Realism. This research will use qualitative research methods with a historical approach. The results of this study provide answers that Realism is not merely militaristic but also a role as a rational actor.

scholarly journals The role of Anglo-German Naval Agreement in escalation of crisis trends of the Versailles system (based on the materials of new archival documents)

2020 ◽  
pp. 75-84
Author(s):  
Alexander Naumov
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
World War ◽  
Systemic Mechanism ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The World ◽  
Archival Documents

This article reviews the role of Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935 in escalation of crisis trends of the Versailles system. Leaning on the British Russian archival documents, which recently became available for the researchers, the author analyzes the reasons and consequences of conclusion of this agreement between the key European democratic power and Nazi Reich. Emphasis is placed on analyzing the moods within the political elite of the United Kingdom. It is proven that the agreement became a significant milestone in escalation of crisis trends in the Versailles model of international relations. It played a substantial role in establishment of the British appeasement policy with regards to revanchist powers in the interbellum; policy that objectively led to disintegration of the created in 1919 systemic mechanism, and thus, the beginning of the World War II. The novelty of this work is substantiated by articulation of the problem. This article is first within the Russian and foreign historiography to analyze execution of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement based on the previously unavailable archival materials. The conclusion is made that this agreement played a crucial role in the process of disintegration of interbellum system of international relations. Having officially sanctioned the violation of the articles of the Versailles Treaty of 1919 by Germany, Great Britain psychologically reconciled to the potential revenge of Germany, which found reflection in the infamous appeasement policy. This launched the mechanism for disruption of status quo that was established after the World War I in Europe. This resulted in collapse of the architecture of international security in the key region of the world, rapid deterioration of relations between the countries, and a new world conflict.

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