The League of Nations & the UN Charter

In the aftermath of the Great War, the League of Nations was formulated as a constitution for governance of the world (Smith 116). The League of Nations was the first organization since the post-Napoleonic Holy Alliance to provide an organizational structure to move from a geopolitical concept based on maintenance of a balance of power between nation-states to a more cooperative structure. The main strength of the idea was in the intent, and in the precedent that the League set for future systems of international cooperation. The League provided for the voicing of national interests in an international forum and an administrative apparatus designed to implement debate (Wells 928). However, the main weakness of the League can be traced to the variety of forms that forwarding national interests in the League took. First of all, the charter provided that major decisions had to be unanimous. "To many minds it made the Covenant League rather less desirable than no league at all . . . a complete recognition of the unalienable sovereignty of states, and a repudiation of the idea of an overriding commonweal of mankind" (Wells 928). On the other hand, individual nation-states responded in terms of national self-interest. Britain wanted to carry on British diplomacy in the League, not be subservient to a supranational organization. France wanted to guarantee Germany's weakness and France's superiority, while Germany saw eventual entry into the League as a means to gain parity with Fran

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Category: Government - T