Examine critically the structure and organisation of the League of Nations

 

The League of Nations was an international organization created in 1919, in response to the devastation of WW1. The League arose from the Paris Peace Conference, forty two countries joined the League at the start and sixty three nations were members. The League managed to reduce diplomacy and alliances to an extent, it opened up new international relationships between states and the international organization. It encouraged peace and international cooperation between states. Living conditions like health and education were also improved.

The League’s aims were international peace and cooperation, to improve people’s lives, to disarm countries, prevent war and enforce the Treaty of Versailles. However the League failed in most of their goals such as world peace, enforcing the treaty and disarming countries. There were major weaknesses in the League that caused its downfall. They can be classified into two categories: structure and organisation.

Structure- “what a  is made of. It is a configuration of items. It is a collection of inter-related components or services.”

Organisation- “a  which pursues collective goals, controls its own performance, and has a boundary separating it from its environment.”

The leagues structure was made up of four different elements: the assembly, the council, the secretariat and the committees. The Assembly consisted of all the League’s members and held meetings once a year. The Assembly had a disadvantageous feature; decisions made had to be unanimous. This was problematic considering that all sixty three nations voted, it often lead to conflicting opinions, tension and even certain members to withdraw from the League. Although it had its advantageous features, such as every state, no matter how small, had an equal vote. This meant that every state was able to express their views. Elements of the League’s structure were weak and caused conflicts between different nations, although each nation was able participate and smaller states weren’t discriminated against, which shows strength in the League. 

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The League’s Council consisted of a small group of important nations, the permanent members being Britain, France, Italy and Japan. The smaller states were represented by a changing rota of four temporary members. In 1963, during the Ethiopian Crisis, Britain invited the Ethiopian delegate to sit at the council table, Italy didn’t accept their presence, Ethiopia responded by stating that “Ethiopia is not an aggressor, but a victim of aggression from a member of the League. I believe it is not Ethiopia who should withdraw from the council”. This affair increased tension between Italy and Ethiopia. This shows a weakness ...

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