Introduction

The League of Nations was born out of the Great War. It was the belief of the national representatives who convened in Versailles in 1919 that the trauma of war required a new model for international relations and alternative mechanisms for international arbitration and negotiation. Promoting international cooperation and achieving international peace were central to the Covenant of the League of Nations. Indeed, upon the League’s foundation, diplomatic work and collective security initiatives were perceived as its raisons d’être. Conversely, social and humanitarian issues were considered marginal vis-à-vis the League’s “larger” political goals. Of the Covenant’s 26 articles, only Article 23 dealt explicitly with the former.

Related Subject(s): Economic and Social Development