di Peter J. Yearwood
Oxford University Press, 2009

Presentazione

Peter Yearwood reconsiders the League of Nations, not as an attempt to realize an idea but as an element in the day-to-day conduct of Britain's foreign policy and domestic politics during the period 1914-25.

He challenges the usual view that London reluctantly adopted the idea in response to pressure from Woodrow Wilson and from domestic public opinion, and that it was particularly wary of ideas of collective security. Instead he examines how London actively promoted the idea to manage Anglo-American relations in war and to provide the context for an enduring hegemonic partnership.

The book breaks new ground in examining how London tried to use the League in the crises of the early 1920s: Armenia, Persia, Vilna, Upper Silesia, Albania, and Corfu. It shows how in the negotiations leading to the Draft Treaty of Mutual Assistance, the Geneva Protocol, and the Locarno accords, Robert Cecil, Ramsay MacDonald, and Austen Chamberlain tried to solve the Franco-German security question through the League. This involves a re-examination of how these leaders tried to use the League as an issue in British domestic politics and why it emerged as central to British foreign policy.


Contents
Introduction
1. nullGive Pause to the Hardiest Aggressornull. A Guarantee of Peace, 1914-1917
2. nullMuch More than an Organization to Prevent Warnull. Beyond the Guarantee of Peace, 1917-1918
3. nullThe Key to the Peace was the Guarantee of the Peacenull. The Creation of the League, 1918-1919
4. nullIn Default of an Immediate Realisation of a True League of Nationsnull. The First Years of the League, 1919-1921
5. nullA Genuine and Energetic League of Nations Policynull. Lord Robert Cecil and the Treaty of Mutual Assistance, 1922-1923
6. nullUpholding the Covenant and the Public Law of Europenull. The Corfu Crisis of 1923
7. nullThe Wiser and Wider Security at which we are Ourselves Aimingnull. The Labour Government and the Geneva Protocol, 1924
8. nullThe Real Dividing Line between the Years of War and the Peace that is to Follownull. Towards Locarno, 1924-1925
Conclusion

Peter J. Yearwood, University of Papua New Guinea