The Failure Of The League Of Nations

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This essay is interested in addressing the argument made by ‘liberal idealists’ in the inter-war period of the prospects for designing international institutions to reduce or eliminate the probability of war. The essay will discuss the failure of the League of Nations in maintaining international peace and security; and how this lead the allied powers of World War 2 to work toward the creation of an international institution that would be more efficient and powerful in the establishment of international peace and security. The result was the establishment of the United Nations (UN) in 1945, which has shown considerable success in maintaining peace and security while promoting international cooperation. Yet, as the examples included in the essay show even the UN has failed in stopping all wars. The roles of other multilateral organisations like WTO, EU and ASEAN in fostering peace will also be discussed.

The theory of liberalism was popular in the 1970s when scholars argued that realism in international relations was outdated. Liberals argued that strictly national interests did not exist, because nation states needed to view their interests as part of regional and even world interests. Thus, importance was given to the role of multinational cooperation - witness the rise of such organisations after the formation of the UN - the EU, WTO, ASEAN are a few examples, mostly based on economic cooperation with an emphasis on regional economic cooperation. As these organisations succeeded, they covered more countries who saw the benefits of belonging to them, and widened their cooperation from strictly economic to more sovereign matters. The EU single currency being a prime example.

Nations were willing to relinquish part of their sove...

... middle of paper ...

...iddle east without first having a credible replacement. This has destabilised the region and we are now living with its consequences.
Ultimately such events call into question the effectiveness of even the UN. The pendulum is once again tilting towards realism. As powerful countries like the US, and countries that have powerful backers like Israeland rogue states like North Korea flaunt UN regulations and get away with it, there is a danger that the world will once again face the dangers of an all out war. This time the only thing that prevents all out war is the fear of Mutual Assured Destruction - the fear that one 's opponent also has the ultimate weapon - nuclear power .

The liberal ideas of globalisation and interconnectedness through multilateral organisations can diminish the threat of war, but realistically the threat of war will never be eliminated.

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