Journal of Global History

Table of Contents - July 2012 - Volume 7, Issue 02  

Articles

Competition and complementarity: civil society networks and the question of decentralizing the League of Nations*

Anne-Isabelle Richarda1

a1 Research Institute for History and Culture, Utrecht University, Drift 10, 3512DS Utrecht, The Netherlands E-mail: airichard@cantab.net

Abstract

This article examines debates on the decentralization of the League of Nations that took place in the civil society networks surrounding it. Set in the wider framework of regionalist debates, particularly in Latin America, it focuses on two organizations, the International Federation of League of Nations Societies, which promoted the League, and the Comité Fédéral de Coopération Européenne, which focused on European cooperation. The analysis of the debate on regionalism and universalism highlights the role that Europe played in the League, and points to the use of universalist arguments to further British imperial ends. It shows that interwar internationalism was a multifaceted phenomenon, in which national, imperial, regional, and universal projects and concerns were profoundly entangled. Finally, the article stresses the overlap between official and civil society networks, which complemented each other's activities.

Keywords

  • European cooperation;
  • global civil society;
  • interwar internationalism;
  • League of Nations;
  • pan-Americanism

Footnotes

* I wish to thank the editors of the Journal of Global History, the two anonymous referees, Andrew Arsan, Carrie Gibson, Daniel Laqua, and Su Lin Lewis for their valuable comments on earlier versions. Any remaining flaws are exclusively my own.