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BACKGROUND
In January 1918, the president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, delivered his famous
‘Fourteen Points ‘speech. Woodrow Wilson was an idealist and his ‘Fourteen Points’ were
reflection of Wilsonian idealism that stresses upon the importance of national self-
determination and international cooperation to promote peace and prosperity. The speech,
broadly speaking, comprised two aspects: his vision for ending the Great War and a means for
the prevention of recurrence such a disastrous and deadly conflict could be avoided in the
future.

He believed that the principal reason for the Great War was the practice of secret alliances and
diplomacy, and proposed that the way to stop this calamity to overtake the world again and
maintain peace in the world is fewer armaments, reduction in trade barriers and grant of right
of self-determination. This would be achieved with the creation of a ‘League of Nations’, where
a universal rule of law would exist, and encouraging member states to function as a collective.
The League would be comprised of an Assembly, Council, Permanent Secretariat, and an
International Court of Justice. The rationale was that an international forum could be provided
to the nations in disputes before they flared up into military action and caused domino effects
that pulled ally nations into the conflict.

WHY DID THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS FAIL?

It soon became apparent, however, that the League was unable to resolve international
disputes and eventually realize its intended goal: to prevent another world war from happening
(WW2 broke out only two decades later). The idea was for the League of Nations to prevent
wars through disarmament, collective security, and negotiation. It was also involved in other
issues such as drug trafficking, arms trade, and global health.

There were a variety of reasons for this failure, many connected to general weaknesses within
the organization, such as voting structure that made ratifying resolutions difficult and
incomplete representation among world nations. Additionally, the power of the League was
limited by the United States’ refusal to join.

STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL WEAKNES

The League of Nations operated on a system of universal consent, rather than majority rule.
This meant that in order for a decision or ruling to be made, all members had to vote
unanimously in favor of it. As progressive as this process was on paper, it was founded upon the
false assumption that internationalism had replaced nationalism as the principal force shaping
the policies of member states. In reality, all nations maintained their own vested interests and
were often not prepared to sacrifice or compromise in order to resolve disputes. The
impractical system of unanimous voting soon came to undermine the League as it was quickly
realized that little could be accomplished if each nation possessed the power to jeopardize an
otherwise unified call for action through a single veto.
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LACK OF MILITARY STRENGTH

Countries within the League were actively encouraged to disarm, supposedly secure in the
knowledge that any disputes could be resolved diplomatically in Geneva. 4 Ultimately, the
League relied on good faith between member states. After such a disastrous war, most
governments were reluctant to offer any military support. Moreover, the League had urged
them to reduce the capacity of their armed forces. Should diplomacy fail, however, the League
possessed no backstop. Without its own military force and a guarantee that member states
would offer support, it lacked any power to prevent aggression. This would soon be exploited
by nations such as Japan and Italy.

TOOTHLESS RESPONSE TO CRISES

When an international crisis loomed, the inherent weaknesses of the League were cruelly
exposed. In 1931, Japanese troops invaded Manchuria. China appealed to the League, which
deemed the invasion to be an unprovoked and immoral act of aggression. Japan’s intentions
were clear, yet the League could hardly retaliate. The League’s response was to establish a
Commission of Enquiry lead by Lord Lytton. The culminating report took over a year to produce
and condemned Japan’s actions. It concluded that Japan should leave Manchuria, but that
Manchuria itself should be run as a semi-independent country. Japan did not accept these
proposals. Instead of leaving Manchuria, they simply resigned from the League in 1933. This
unearthed the League’s impotence to resolve conflicts,

As Japan had demonstrated, if a nation did not agree with the ruling of the Court of
International Justice, it could simply exit the League. It was not long before other member
states exited the League. After the Italian invasion of Abyssinia (1934), Mussolini removed Italy
from the League despite British and French to appease the dictator, which contradicted the
organisation’s principles. Germany also resigned in 1935 as Hitler’s desire for conquest and
annexation steadily grew. Britain shortly abandoned the idea that stability within Europe and
Asia could be achieved through the League of Nations. Neville Chamberlain’s adoption of an
appeasement policy in the 1930s confirmed Britain’s desire to seek peace through independent
mediation, rather than international collaboration. Unfortunately, neither approach
successfully prevented what would become the deadliest global conflict in history.

ABSENCE OF THE UNITED STATES

The absence of the United States as a League member has often been attributed as a main
cause of its failure. Having proposed its creation, Wilson toured America to gain public support
for the international project. Unfortunately, he was fiercely opposed in Congress.
Reservationists, led by Henry Cabot Lodge, supported the idea of the League, but wanted the
United States to have greater autonomy within the organisation. It was claimed that America
would be burdened by obligations that might force them to declare war. Lodge achieved a
Senate majority when Wilson refused to compromise, denying the United States’ entry into the
organisation it had founded. The United States’ non-membership damaged the League’s
reputation and its ability to function effectively. Their absence undermined the League’s
message of universal solidarity and cooperation. Here was a prime example of nation acting in
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its own interest, something Wilson had strongly condemned. The United States’ absence would
have practical consequences too. France and Britain, the two remaining Allied ‘powerhouses’ in
the League, had been crippled economically by the war, and they lacked the strength to enforce
discipline and diplomacy.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the resulting global economic depression led many countries
to adopt isolationist policies to protect their internal economies. Isolationism contributed to a
growing disinterest in the League, consequently damaging the organisation’s reputation. The
Great Depression demonstrated that a policy of international cooperation was often
abandoned in times of crises. Many governments reverted to nationalism to sustain their
national pride. This occurred in countries such as Germany, Italy and Japan, where economic
strife facilitated the rise of dictatorships and aggressive foreign policies.

Notwithstanding aforementioned weaknesses that contributed to the failure of the LON, it

played, though limited, role in resolving the turmoil resulting from the war. The questions the
League considered in its early years included those designated by the Paris Peace treaties. As
the League developed, its role expanded, and by the middle of the 1920s it had become the
center of international activity. This change can be seen in the relationship between the League
and non-members. The United States and Russia, for example, increasingly worked with the
League. During the second half of the 1920s, France, Britain, and Germany were all using the
League of Nations as the focus of their diplomatic activity, and each of their foreign secretaries
attended League meetings at Geneva during this period. They also used the League’s machinery
to improve relations and settle their differences. In addition to territorial disputes, the League
also tried to intervene in other conflicts between and within nations. Among its successes was
its fight against the international trade in opium and sexual slavery and its work to alleviate the
plight of refugees, particularly in Turkey in the 2 period up to 1926. One of its innovations in
this latter area was the 1922 introduction of the Nansen passport, the first internationally
recognized identity card for stateless refugees. The League failed to intervene in many conflicts
leading up to World War II, including the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, the Spanish Civil War, and
the Second Sino-Japanese War. The onset of the Second World War demonstrated that the
League had failed in its primary purpose, the prevention of another world war.