0LEC119F Essay: League of Nations, Noble Effort or Naive Failure?

This essay critically examines the League of Nations, an international organization established after World War I, headquartered in Geneva, with the goal of resolving global disputes and preventing future conflicts. The essay argues that despite its noble intentions, the League of Nations ultimately proved to be a naive failure in maintaining international peace. It supports this thesis by discussing the League's efforts in promoting non-violent diplomacy and collective security, while also highlighting its shortcomings, such as the lack of an armed force and the reluctance of major powers to enforce its resolutions. The essay further explores the League's failures, including its inability to prevent aggression by the Axis powers and its perceived ineffectiveness during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. The essay concludes that while the League of Nations represented a commendable effort, its ultimate impact was limited by various factors, leading to its failure in achieving its primary goal of preventing war and maintaining global peace.

Running Head : Sociology
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Was the League of Nations a noble effort or a naïve failure
Introduction
League of Nations was the international organization which was headquartered in
Switzerland, Geneva. It was established in the year 1920, on January 10 after first world war for
the development and the provision of the forum for resolving all the international or the global
disputes (Clavin 2013). The thesis statement of the essay argues that despite of the efficiency and
the noble effort behind the development of League of Nations, it was a naïve failure in the
history of international peace. The essay will illustrate the arguments related to league of nations
as a noble effort together with counter arguments explaining how the international organization
was a naïve failure.
Discussion
President Wilson initiated the support for the international system for the development or
the creation of the universal institution pledged towards the non violent diplomacy. According to
Shields (2016), the League of Nations was developed for the propagation of international peace
and prevention of any conflict or any other world wars.
League of Nations was developed or formed at the ‘Paris Peace Conference’ for the goal
of the prevention of another international conflict regarding world war. This argument explains
the main goal towards the formation of the League of Nations was also to protect as well as
maintain global or international peace. The main assentation that is made in this argument is that
this international organization was developed for making peace among the countries involved in
the world war I (Jackson 2013). This argument supports the thesis statement of this essay by
highlighting the fact that this international organization, the League of Nations was a noble effort
by the president. This argument is linked to the other arguments related to League of Nations and

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its efficiency towards preventing the world war and international peace among all the countries
through out the globe. Evidence in line with counter argument regarding the development of
league of nations and its efficiency towards protection of the world peace was evident on 1930
after the notable failure of the organization and its incapability to prevent the aggression by the
powers of axis (Pernet 2014). Thus it can be summarized from this argument that though this
international organization was developed for a noble cause, but it was not at all fruitful.
However, the initiatives did not went unnoticed since League of Nations is still a remarkable
chapter and a figure in history.
Another argument is that, the League of Nations has its primary goal towards the
prevention of the wars through the means of collective forms of security, disarmament and the
settling of the global disputes (Watenpaugh 2015). As being thoroughly stated in the Covenant,
the international organization aims for its goals through the arbitration as well as negotiation.
Some of the other targets of League of Nations and its connected treaties includes treatment
related to the native inhabitants, the labor conditions, drug and human trafficking, global health
care, rights of prisoners of war, arms trade and finally the protection of the European minorities
(Jogarajan 2018). The main assertion as the part of this argument includes the diplomatic
philosophy beside the League of Nations which represented the basic and the fundamental shift
from preceding years. This argument support the thesis regarding the development of noble
effort in the history of the international peace. However the counter argument which is linked to
the argument is that the League of Nations lacked the armed force of its own and relied over the
major powers for enforcing its resolution and also kept economic sanctions (Wilson 2015). It
furthermore provide army when required however the entire process was quiet reluctant and the

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great powers often felt reluctant towards any actions. One of the major factor which can be
summarized as the counter argument regarding this , thereby connecting the thesis attainment of
the league of nations as the naïve failure is the era of the second italo-abyssinian war where the
international organization accused Italian soldiers for targeting the red cross tents. According to
Summy (2014), Mussolini stated that the “league of nations has been very well and effective
when the sparrows shout, but has been of no good and use when all the eagles fall out”.
It is furthermore a debate that the league of nation was successful for handling disputes as
well as the incidents of international conflicts. This argument explains the authenticity of the
international organization was checked by the utility regarding resolving social and political
challenges. The main assertion that could be made as the part of the argument includes the
provision of the leaguer to a useful and a modest addition to the field of international diplomacy
in which the diplomatic relations and the negotiation rounds develop (Weiss 2015). Security was
also being provided by the international organization to the frontiers and the challenges related to
the disarmaments was being solved. This argument support the context of the thesis statement of
the essay on the development of a noble effort. This argument is linked to the other arguments
regarding the positive and the noble motive behind the formation or the development of the
league of nations (Hansson 2014). The counter argument in this regard is that the league failed
its main goal of the maintenance of the world peace due to the absence of the great powers and
the rise of the dictatorship in japan, Italy and Germany. Furthermore the domination of the
England and France over the league and the other states was another reason for failure.
According to Housden (2014), it can be summarized from the above that the treaty of Versailles
was actually the treaty of revenge and was not actually developed for the international purpose.

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Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded from the above arguments and the counter arguments,
connecting to the thesis statement of the essay that though the development and the formation of
the international organization, the league of nations was done with a noble motive and a cause
for the international protection and peace from any other conflicts resulting from war, the league
of nations throughout has been a naive failure. The thesis statement of the essay makes a logical
and coherent argument is response to the essay question stating that league of nations was a
naïve failure.

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Reference
Clavin, P., 2013. Securing the world economy: the reinvention of the League of Nations, 1920-
1946. Oxford University Press.
Hansson, L., 2014. International Law for International Relations Professor Grieco 25 April 2014
German Jewish Refugees in 1933: Failure of the League of Nations.
Housden, M., 2014. The League of Nations and the Organization of Peace. Routledge.
Jackson, S., 2013. Diaspora politics and developmental empire: the Syro-Lebanese at the League
of Nations. The Arab Studies Journal, 21(1), pp.166-190.
Jogarajan, S., 2018. Double Taxation and the League of Nations. Cambridge University Press.
Pernet, C.A., 2014. Twists, Turns and Dead Alleys: The League of Nations and Intellectual
Cooperation in Times of War. Journal of Modern European History, 12(3), pp.342-358.
Shields, S., 2016. Forced Migration as Nation-Building: The League of Nations, Minority
Protection, and the Greek-Turkish Population Exchange. Journal of the History of International
Law/Revue d'histoire du droit international, 18(1), pp.120-145.
Summy, H., 2014. Countering War: The role of the League of Nations Union. Social
Alternatives, 33(4).
Watenpaugh, K.D., 2015. Between communal survival and national aspiration: Armenian
Genocide refugees, the League of Nations and the practices of interwar humanitarianism. In The
Routledge Handbook of the History of the Middle East Mandates (pp. 63-83). Routledge.
Weiss, T.G., 2015. The United Nations: before, during and after 1945. International
Affairs, 91(6), pp.1221-1235.
Wilson, P., 2015. Leonard Woolf, the League of Nations and peace between the wars. The
Political Quarterly, 86(4), pp.532-539.

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