Economic and Social Development
Intellectual Cooperation at the League of Nations
Shaping Cultural and Political Relations
Edited by Martin Grandjean and Daniel Laqua, this book brings together the work of 17 scholars and highlights the breadth of the League of Nations’ work in the field of intellectual cooperation, detailing a range of transnational connections across a variety of cultural fields. Building a new global order after the First World War required not only political and economic reconstruction, but also the coordination of scientific and cultural relations on an international scale. To this end, the League of Nations established first a committee and then a Paris-based institute dedicated to “intellectual cooperation”. Operative from1922 and 1926 respectively, these bodies aimed to develop a collaborative dynamic around issues as diverse as professor and student exchanges, scientific cooperation, the discussion of educational means for peace, as well as artistic and literary relations. Attracting some of the era’s most eminent intellectuals, this initiative did not lead to the creation of a “League of Minds”, as some of the architects of the League of Nations had so eagerly hoped, but it played a key role in the development of cultural diplomacy in the interwar period. When citing the publication, please use the following language: Martin Grandjean and Daniel Laqua, eds. Intellectual Cooperation at the League of Nations: Shaping Cultural and Political Relations. Vol. 5. UN Historical Series. Geneva: United Nations, 2025.
Acknowledgments
This volume follows on from the Centenary Conference on Intellectual Cooperation, held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 12 and 13 May 2022, and organized with the support of the History Department of the University of Lausanne, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the United Nations Library & Archives Geneva.
Gabrielle radziwill: the story of an eastern european princess at the service of intellectual cooperation
This chapter sheds light on women’s involvement in the League of Nations and, more specifically, its work in the field of intellectual cooperation.
A gender perspective on the history of intellectual cooperation: women at the league of nations and the Paris institute
Narrating the global past does not mean the pursuit of encyclopaedic objectives, nor does it represent an accumulation of national histories.
Introduction: Intellectual cooperation at the league of nations and its histories
Can the act of gathering a range of intellectuals around a table build better international understanding? Various prominent cultural and scientific figures were confronted with this question when they came together on the League of Nations’ premises by the shore of Lake Geneva on 1 August 1922.
Transnational associations and intellectual cooperation: anticipating, lobbying, serving and complementing the league of nations institutions
The project of international intellectual cooperation following the First World War was one that League of Nations officials realised could not be accomplished through the efforts of the organization and governments alone.
Preface
The history of intellectual cooperation, closely tied to the League of Nations, is a complex saga intertwining humanist ideals, political stakes and geopolitical realities.
Modelling a fascist internationalism: Italy’s national committee for intellectual cooperation, 1924–1937
The launch of an enquiry into “the conditions of intellectual life” since the Great War was among the first activities of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC) after its foundation in 1922.
The trauma of imperial decline versus the triumph of national rebirth: austria’s and Poland’s contrasting concepts of international intellectual cooperation after the first world war
In 1922, against the backdrop of manifold challenges faced by scholarly and scientific endeavours across Central Europe, the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC) was established to advise the League of Nations on how one might best assist intellectual exchange and foster international cooperation.
In the engine room of intellectual cooperation: a prosopographical approach to the civil servants of the international institute of intellectual cooperation in Paris
In October 1925, the Norwegian zoologist Kristine Bonnevie – a founding member of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC) and, besides Marie Skłodowska-Curie, the only woman on this body – wrote a long letter to the newly appointed director of the International Institute for Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC), Julien Luchaire.
The entretien of buenos aires in 1936: debates on intellectual cooperation and western culture in a world on edge
In early September 1936, two international writers’ congresses took place in Buenos Aires: the PEN Club’s and the Entretien.
Derara’s story from Ethiopia
Derara, 7, plays on the sun-scorched ground in Dubuluk camp for displaced persons in southern Ethiopia. His laughter rises above the stillness of the camp, which is lined with makeshift shelters. A heavy sense of uncertainty lingers but, for Derara, a sense of normality is slowly returning.
Astride’s story from the Democratic Republic of the Congo
“I lost five years of schooling to the mines. But through welding I gained strength and independence,” explains Astride, 16, as she examines a window frame she has just finished welding.
Regional classifications
Aggregates presented at the end of each of the 19 statistical tables are calculated using data from countries and areas as classifiedbelow.
Youth visions: Poverty-free futures
How do children and young people experience poverty? This chapter articulates young people’s experiences: The challenges they must confront and the futures they dare to shape.
Kulsum’s story from Bangladesh
Fourteen-year-old Kulsum sits cross-legged on the floor of a makeshift bamboo classroom in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Around her, the walls are adorned with colourful teaching and learning aids in Burmese and English. After three months off, she is finally back in class.
Sylvia’s story from Bulgaria
In April 2021, social worker Katya Kirova was making the rounds in the Roma community of the Meden Rudnik neighbourhood in Burgas, Bulgaria, when she came across a child who showed signs of developmental delay.