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16 - The Persistence of Old Diplomacy

The Paris Peace Settlement in Perspective

from Part IV - Counterpoint

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2023

Peter Jackson
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
William Mulligan
Affiliation:
University College Dublin
Glenda Sluga
Affiliation:
European University Institute, Florence
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Summary

The sudden end of the war in 1918 gave rise to high expectations of the forthcoming peace congress. Yet neither the gathering at Paris nor the settlement to which it gave its name marked a new beginning in international politics. ‘New Diplomacy’ proved to be a short-lived blossoming. Old diplomacy, with its focus on the management of relations between states, persisted, though bearing outwardly the stamp of Geneva. Openness and democratic ideals did not lend themselves to peacemaking but rather complicated international relations. Not only was the Paris settlement not ‘a building finished and complete in all respects’, it also did not rest on stable foundations. In erecting it, the peacemakers had undermined the primacy of order; and into the cracks in the new building seeped malign ideas and narrowly defined interests which, ultimately, brought it down.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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