There had been wars and conflicts all around the world before the League of Nations came to be and there was need for an institution to maintain peace, Kant (1795) wrote in his essay perpetual peace for the need of the League of Nations. Kant (1795) argues for an established peace among states and proposes that “...each of them may and should for the sake of its own security demand that the others enter with it into a constitution similar to the civil constitution, for under such a constitution each can be secure in his right. This would be a league of nations, but it would not have to be a state consisting of nations...” (Kant, 1795, p.8). This principle was adopted by Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations charter was drafted to establish universal peace and equality among nations. However, in the League’s covenant, there was prohibition of military aggression; but it did not reject a nation’s right to start a war, and also, the League did not have a military force at its disposal and no member of the League was obliged to provide one under the membership terms (Trueman, 2000). The United Nations charter on the other hand, had some similarities with the covenant of the League of Nation; it shared the same goal of peacekeeping. However, in the United Nation’s charter, there was an added provision for total war bans that was clearly stated in the UN”S charter “…Under no circumstances may a nation legally start war...” (UN, 2009). The Security Council of the UN is responsible for the maintenance of peace-keeping forces to help reduce tensions in troubled areas. (UN, 2009)
In comparing the voting system of both institutions, the Leagues voting system on decision making was made unanimously. In effect, each member state of the League had the power of the veto (Thomson, 2007), but for the United Nations; all its organs and subsidiary bodies make decisions by a number of majority vote. Although, the rule of unanimity applies only to five major powers France, China, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Russian Federation and then only when they are acting in their capacity as permanent members of the Security Council (Thomson, 2007).
The League of Nations was an International Institution which never lived up to expectations, although, it established a goal of universal membership (Townshend, 2009). The League failed to retain the membership of certain major powers whose participation and cooperation were essential to make it an effective instrument for preserving the peace. Thomson (2007) wrote that when the League was unable to contain the aggressive policies of Germany, Italy, and Japan, the three aggressor states themselves withdrew their membership. The United Nations on the other hand, has the goal of universality with only a few smaller countries still unrepresented; UN (2009) the United Nation currently has a total membership at 192 member states.
In view of the League’s covenant on human rights economic and social programs, the covenant did not contain provisions for a program such as the economic and social cooperation; Townshend (2009) but the League performed valuable work in several fields working to eliminate the illegal sale of women and children, eradicate slave trade; providing support for immigrant; and getting nations to minimize trade limitations. However, the International Labour Organization (ILO), an international institution was founded in the era of the League to tackle some of these issues. The ILO’s aims are to be “…devoted to advancing opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity” (ILO, 2009). The United Nations charter on the other hand, made provision for the establishment of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to serve as a forum to discuss economic and social issues, promoting the principle of equal rights and self-determination of people also rising a higher standard of living and employment (ECOSOC, 2009).
In the area of administration of territories, the League was confronted with some difficulties in war prevention and dispute settlement; some examples are the inability to resolve disputes with larger powers, Trueman (2000) the League was unable to control the belligerent action of the Axis powers, Italy, Japan and Germany and hence failed to stop the drift toward a new world war. In the case of Italy against Albania in 1923, the guilt was apparent on the side of Italy but the League failed to impose an oil embargo on Italy. This action of the League, however, brought doubts within other member states of the League and questioned the credibility of the Leagues system on economic sanctions (Townshend, 2009).
Similarly with the League of Nations, the United Nations also experienced some challenges; the first attempt made by the UN to resolve a serious conflict in Palestine in 1947 -1948 was futile and even proved fatal. This failure was due to the inability of the UN to implement its own separation plan; as a result the special mediator was murdered (Townshend, 2009). In Arab-Israeli wars in the Middle East, although, progress has been made towards resolving conflicts, but it has not succeeded in finding a permanent solution to the prolonged crisis that has intermittently erupted. The United Nations failures in such situations, Trueman (2000) have caused loss of confidence in its relevance in international political relations. However, this was expressed by Boutros-Ghali (1995) saying “...The United Nations Today is at the forefront of efforts to solve the new range of global security problems. Over the past few years; there have been some setbacks”. (Boutros-Ghali, 1995)
The League of Nations was not a total failure; it recorded some successes in adverting wars among which were, the border disputes between Iraq and Turkey in 1925, Bulgaria and Greece in1925- 26 and Poland and Lithuania in 1927; Simkin (2007) the League had evident success also in the area of controlling the flow on opium and other dangerous narcotics. Although, the League eventually failed, but the international communities understood its collective security tenet with the liberal thinking, this has however, helped in highlighting problems with the league's covenant that were later amended in the United Nations charter (Allida et. al., 2003).
The United Nations unlike the League have more significantly extensive responsibilities than those of the League. All members of the United Nations are automatically parties to the Statute of the International Court of Justice, which is a fundamental part of the Charter. The United Nations is the centre of a network of organizations whose activities reach the national life of every member state (Thomson, 2007). While the World War II was nearing an end, the Allies rejected the reinstatement of the League, but rather went ahead to establish the United Nations. Townshend (2009) a momentous amount of the old League's aims and methods were conveyed into United Nations charter in 1945. The United Nations took over some of the League’s effective institutions, such as the International Court and the International Labour Organisation. (Townshend, 2009)
The United Nations Charter contains provisions which gave to its organs greater authority than was vested into the organs of the League. The Secretariat of the United Nations is clearly a continuation of the League Secretariat, with a bundle of substance in common (Leland, 1947, p.4). The role of the Secretary General as the administrator of the United Nations was derived from the League of Nations (Leland, 1947, p.14). The United Nations powers to settle the pacific disputes are considerably the same as those of the League (Leland, 1947, p.15). In Leland (1947) he attempts to balance his comparison between the League of Nations to United Nations in his article where he wrote “…The European power concert of Powers, the practice of arbitration in the settlement of disputes, international administrative cooperation, to mention only a few which entered the fabric of the League. Should we be surprised to find that what was true of the League of Nations is even truer of the Unites Nations?” (Leland, 1947, p.5). In Leland (1947) his conclusion was that, the League of Nations had similarities with the United Nations in powers, dispute settlements, failures and successes; one is neither superior to the other.
In conclusion after scrutinizing all the evidences presented in the first and second section of this essay, it is clear that both the League of Nations and the United Nations shared similar vision, common goals and objectives. Woodrow Wilson could not convince the US congress to approve the Treaty of the League and also to join the League. It could be said that one of the reason the League was not much of a success was due to the fact that it never had support from the Unites States.
The League of Nations never died, but rather faded away giving birth to a greater successor; the United Nations who inherited not only the Leagues covenant but also all the properties and International organisations created in the era of the League of Nations. The United Nations has been a success under the charter; unlike the League of Nations, it has the support of the United States.
In summary of the comparison, the League of Nations was much of a success as the United Nations is today. The League battled with many challenges until it collapsed, United Nations today however; is maintaining global peace, but still battling with issues at the forefront with efforts to solve the new range of global security problems.
References
Allida, B. et al., (2003) League of Nations: Teaching Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site. 2003. URL: [accessed: November 23, 2009]
Boutros-Ghali, B. (1995) The United Nations today. Vital Speeches of the Day 61. 19(581). [Online]. Academic Search Complete EBSCOhost.
Duffy, M. (2009) A multimedia history of world war one: Primary documents. URL: [accessed: December 3, 2009]
ECOSOC. (2009). United Nations Economic and Social Council. URL: [accessed: December 04, 2009]
Encyclopedia of the Nations. (2009) Comparison with the League of Nations. URL: [accessed: November 15, 2009]
ILO. (2009) The History of ILO. URL: [accessed: November 23, 2009]
Kant, I. (1795) Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch. URL: [Accessed November 16, 2009]
Leland, M. G. (1947) From League of Nations to United Nations. International Organization. 1 (1). pp. 3-21. [Online] Academic Search Complete jstor.
Simkin, J. (2007) . URL: [accessed: December 3, 2009]
Thomson, G. (2007) . URL: [Accessed November 15, 2009]
Townshend, C. (2009) The League of Nations and the United Nations. URL: [Accessed November 15, 2009]
Trueman, C. (2000) League of Nations. URL: [Accessed November 16, 2009]
United Nations. (2009) UN at a glance. URL: [accessed: November 16, 2009]
