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The League of Nations and international politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Michael Smith
Michael Smith
Affiliation:
Lecturer in International Relations, Lanchester Polytechnic
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Extract

The problem of reconciling historical data and scholarship with the concepts and assumptions of political science is a familiar and much-debated one. Whatever the abstract arguments about the exercise, it is a desirable one in the evolution of rigorous and comparative analyses, and one which demands attention in many areas of international studies. It is the aim of this review article to look at the problems entailed in the reconciliation of history and theory, through the particular example of the League of Nations and its experience.

Type
Review Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , October 1976 , pp. 311 - 323
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 1976

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References

page 311 note 1 For an interesting recent discussion of the problem in relation to the phenomenon of appeasement, see Jones, R. J. Barry, ‘The study of “appeasement” and the study of international relations’, British Journal of International Studies, i (Apr. 1975), pp. 68–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 311 note 2 A representative range of suc h writing includes: Walters, F. P., A History of the League of Nations (London, 1952)Google Scholar; Zimmern, A., The League of Nations and the Rule of Law (London, 1936)Google Scholar; Webster, C. K. and Herbert, S., The League of Nations in Theory and Practice (London, 1933)Google Scholar; more recently, Scott, G., The Rise and Fall of the League of Nations (London, 1973)Google Scholar and Bendiner, E., A Time for Angels: the tragicomic history of the League of Nations (London, 1975)Google Scholar. A useful survey is in the Introduction to Henig, R. (ed.), The League of Nations (Edinburgh, 1973).Google Scholar

page 311 note 3 See Henig, op. cit. p. 178.

page 311 note 4 On the Covenant, see Miller, D. H., The Drafting of the Covenant (New York, 1928)Google Scholar, Elcock, H., Portrait ofa Decision (London, 1972)Google Scholar and Mayer, A. G., Politics and Diplomacy of Peacemaking (New York, 1967)Google Scholar; on peace observation and peaceful change, see Wainhouse, D. (ed.), International Peace Observation (Baltimore, 1966)Google Scholar and Bloomfield, L., Evolution or Revolution? (Cambridge, Mass., 1957)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; on the Secretariat, see von Ranshofen-Wertheimer, E. F., The International Secretariat (Washington, D.C, 1945)Google Scholar, Barros, J., Betrayal From Within (New Haven, 1969)Google Scholar and Rovine, A., The First Fifty Years: the Secretary-General in world politics, 1920-1970 (Leyden, 1971)Google Scholar; on mandates, see Wright, Q., Mandates under the League of Nations (Chicago, 1930)Google Scholar, Hall, D., Mandates, Dependencies and Trusteeships (Washington, D.C, 1948)Google Scholar and Haas, E., ‘The reconciliation of conflicting policy aims - acceptance of the League of Nations mandates system’, International Organisation, vi (1952)Google Scholar; on minorities, see Claude, I. L., National Minorities, an International Problem (Cambridge, Mass., 1955)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Macartney, C. A., National States and National Minorities (London, 1934)Google Scholar.

page 312 note 1 For example, the historical studies by Barros, J.: The Corfu Incident of 1925 (Princeton, 1965)Google Scholar, The Aland Islands Question (New Haven, 1968)Google Scholar, The League of Nations and the Great Powers; the Greek-Bulgarian incident of 1925 (London, 1970)Google Scholar; and the comprehensive work by Thome, C., The Limits of Foreign Policy: the League, the West and the Far East crisis of 1931-1933 (London, 1972)Google Scholar, which does attempt to use theories and concepts of international relations.

page 312 note 2 Henig, op. cit. pp. 1-2. This is borne out by the major textbooks on international organization, such as Claude, I. L., Swords into Ploivshares (New York, 1971)Google Scholar and Piano, J. C. and Riggs, R. E., Forging World Order (New York, 1967)Google Scholar.

page 312 note 3 One exception is the work of Michalak, S., ‘The United Nations and the League’ in Gordenker, L. (ed.), The United Nations in International Politics (Princeton, 1971)Google Scholar. See also his ‘The League of Nations and the United Nations in World Politics: a plea for comparative research on universal international organization’, International Studies Quarterly xv (1971), pp. 387–438Google Scholar.

page 313 note 1 On this general issue, see for example, Holsti, K. J., International Politics: aframework for analysis (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1972)Google Scholar. On intergovernmental organization specifically, see Haas, E., The Web of Interdependence (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1970)Google Scholar; Hanrieder, W., ‘International organizations and international systems’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, x (1966), pp. 297–313CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Oran Young, ‘The United Nations and the international system’ in Gordenker (ed.), op. cit.; Hoffmann, S., ‘International organization and the international system’, International Organisation, xxiv (1970), pp. 389–413CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Ogley, R., ‘Towards a general theory of international organization’, International Relations, iii (Nov. 1969)Google Scholar.

page 313 note 2 Young and Hoffmann, op. cit., both have interesting comments on this point.

page 313 note 3 See Haas, op. cit.; n.b. his ‘Dynamic environment and static system: revolutionary regimes in the United Nations’ in Kaplan, M. (ed.), The Revolution in World Politics (New York, 1962)Google Scholar; also Hanrieder and Ogley, op. cit.

page 314 note 1 Identified, for example by Holsti, op. cit. and by Rosecrance, R., Action and Reaction in World Politics (Boston, 1963).Google Scholar

page 314 note 2 As is done by Haas, Hanrieder, Hoffmann and Young, op. cit.; also by Haas, M., ‘A functional approach to international organization’, Journal of Politics 27 (1965), pp. 498–517CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 314 note 3 See Haas, op. cit.

page 314 note 4 Ibid.

page 314 note 5 Young, op. cit. p. 12.

page 315 note 1 Haas, Web of Interdependence, op. cit. pp. 6-11.

page 315 note 2 Young, op, cit. p. 14 fl

page 315 note 3 Haas, Web of Interdependence, op. cit. pp. 6 ff.; see also Hanrieder and M. Haas, ‘A functional approach’, op. cit. p. 502.

page 316 note 1 Much of the work on voting and bloc politics in the United Nations, to take one example,, can be seen in this light.

page 316 note 2 Haas, Web of Interdependence, op. cit. ch. 1.

page 316 note 3 Young, op. cit. p. 36 ff.; Hoffmann, op. cit. pp. 399-400; Ogley, op. cit. p. 610 ff.; E. Haas, ‘Dynamic environment’, op. cit. p. 306. See also Haas, E., ‘The comparative study of the United Nations’, World Politics, xxii (1960), pp. 298–322CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 316 note 4 See Claude, Sivords into Plojpsbares, op. cit. ch. 11-17; Young, ‘The United Nations and the international system’, op. cit. discerns six roles performed by the U.N. : “regulator”; “effector of Great Power Agreements”; “partisan political instrument”; “force for political change”; “creator of long-term viability”; “norm creator”, op. cit, pp. 25 ff.

page 317 note 1 Eicock and Mayer, op. cit.y provide good surveys of this formative stage.

page 317 note 2 See Wolfers, A., Britain and France between two Wars (New York, 1940)Google Scholar; Newman, W. J., The Balance of Poiver in the Interwar Years (New York, 1968)Google Scholar; and Jacobson, J., Locarno Diplomacy (Princeton, 1972)Google Scholar, on which this discussion draws.

page 317 note 3 See especially Jacobson, Locarno Diplomacy.

page 317 note 4 For a survey of the literature on appeasement, see R. J. Barry Jones, ‘The study of “appeasement” and the study of international relations’, op. cit.

page 318 note 1 Wolfers and Jacobson are particularly useful on this problem.

page 318 note 2 Such is essentially the thesis of Carr's, E. H. classic work, The Twenty Years’ Crisis (London, 1939)Google Scholar

page 319 note 1 Kuehl, W. F., Seeking World Order (Nashville, Tenn, 1969)Google Scholar provides an account with special reference to the U.S.A.

page 319 note 2 Elcock and Mayer, op. cit., provide useful reviews. Walters, op. cit. gives a dissection of the various contributions, and Henig, op. cit., gathers together an interesting group of documents.

page 319 note 3 Posed by Claude, op. cit., p. 55 especially.

page 319 note 4 Henig, op. cit. p. 12.

page 319 note 5 Dexter, B., The Years of Opportunity: the League of Nations, 1920-1926 (New York, 1967)Google Scholar; Walters, op. cit., Part II.

page 320 note 1 See the works cited in p. 311, n. 3-4; also Dexter, op. cit. On technical co-operation, the best brief survey is by Ghebali, Victor-Yves, ‘The League of Nations and Functionalism’ in Taylor, P. and Groom, A. J. R. (eds.), Functionalism: Theory and Practice in international relations (London, 1975)Google Scholar.

page 320 note 2 Jacobson, op. cit. scarcely mentions the League except as it felt the effects of the Locarno treaties.

page 320 note 3 Scott, op. cit., provides a very clear example of this division.

page 320 note 4 Thome, op. cit. is an admirable survey.

page 321 note 1 See Walters, op. cit. ch. 56; Scott, op. cit. pp. 386 ff. .

page 321 note 2 Rosecrance, op. cit. pp. 293 ff.; Scott, A., The Functioning of the International Political System, (New York, 1967)Google Scholar, passim.

page 321 note 3 Haas, Web of Interdependence. This division is also used by Michalak, op. cit.

page 322 note 1 Herz, J., International Politics in the Atomic Age (New York, 1959)Google Scholar.

page 323 note 1 See Michalak, op. cit., on the League's record in disputes. The present reviewer is completing a study of ‘outsiders’ and the League of Nations, covering the U.S.A., the U.S.S.R. and Germany, of which an initial summary can be found in Ogley, R. and Smith, M., ‘Insiders and outsiders’, Yearbook of World Affairs (1974), pp. 232–49Google Scholar.