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The League of Nations & the Rule of Law
- GenresInternational Relations
527 pages, Hardcover
About the author
Alfred Eckhard Zimmern
48 books3 followersSir Alfred Eckhard Zimmern (1879–1957) was an English classical scholar, historian, and political scientist writing on international relations. His book The Third British Empire was among the first to apply the expression "British Commonwealth" to the British Empire. He is also credited with the phrase "welfare state", which was made popular a few years later by William Temple.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 28, 2025
Alfred Zimmern was a founder of the International Relations (IR) discipline. His nomination at Aberystwyth University in 1919 is the official beginning of this academic domain (Griffiths 2000, 100). The League of Nations and the Rule of Law (1936) is a summary and an evaluation of this famous international organization. I recommend it to anyone interested in the study of war, peace, and world order.
The League of Nations was promoted by Woodrow Wilson and many intellectuals during World War I as a solution to the propaganda of war. Similar to Kant's Perpetual Peace, it was thought best to function alongside democratic regimes and economic cooperation. On these norms, the liberal, rules-based international order is supposed to rest (Biró 2006, 79-80). The idealist interwar school of International Relations was oriented towards the study of these issues.
Alfred Zimmern argued that the League was a development of 19th-century diplomatic processes. It was a more stable version of the Congress System, based on treaties instead of just habits. His liberalism was evolutionary, not radical. Even if it failed, in the end, the organization was, for him, a step towards achieving a world order guided by the rule of law.
I found that Alfred Zimmern's approach was more pragmatic than the idealistic designation of his school led me to expect. He saw the organization as an inclusive setting for the states to meet and negotiate. While traditional diplomacy remained significant, some new conditions proved to be decisive for the League. Public opinion could turn against cabinet deals while the economy was mixed with politics.
The League of Nations and the Rule of Law show how IR was practiced in the beginning (Griffiths 2000, 101). Alfred Zimmern distinguished between states and societies and argued in favor of understanding transnational relations, alongside the official ones. Still, politics and formalism are dominant and the methods are close to journalism and the study of recent history. It is interesting that his defense of the League as no more than a stage can be applied to most of today's international organizations.
Additional sources:
Daniel Biró, "Idealismul utopic" sau gandirea internationalistilor liberali in perioada interbelica, (in Miroiu, Ungureanu, 2006) ("Utopian idealism" or the liberal internationalists's doctrine during the interwar period).
Martin Griffiths, Fifty Key Thinkers in International Relations (2000)
The League of Nations was promoted by Woodrow Wilson and many intellectuals during World War I as a solution to the propaganda of war. Similar to Kant's Perpetual Peace, it was thought best to function alongside democratic regimes and economic cooperation. On these norms, the liberal, rules-based international order is supposed to rest (Biró 2006, 79-80). The idealist interwar school of International Relations was oriented towards the study of these issues.
Alfred Zimmern argued that the League was a development of 19th-century diplomatic processes. It was a more stable version of the Congress System, based on treaties instead of just habits. His liberalism was evolutionary, not radical. Even if it failed, in the end, the organization was, for him, a step towards achieving a world order guided by the rule of law.
I found that Alfred Zimmern's approach was more pragmatic than the idealistic designation of his school led me to expect. He saw the organization as an inclusive setting for the states to meet and negotiate. While traditional diplomacy remained significant, some new conditions proved to be decisive for the League. Public opinion could turn against cabinet deals while the economy was mixed with politics.
The League of Nations and the Rule of Law show how IR was practiced in the beginning (Griffiths 2000, 101). Alfred Zimmern distinguished between states and societies and argued in favor of understanding transnational relations, alongside the official ones. Still, politics and formalism are dominant and the methods are close to journalism and the study of recent history. It is interesting that his defense of the League as no more than a stage can be applied to most of today's international organizations.
Additional sources:
Daniel Biró, "Idealismul utopic" sau gandirea internationalistilor liberali in perioada interbelica, (in Miroiu, Ungureanu, 2006) ("Utopian idealism" or the liberal internationalists's doctrine during the interwar period).
Martin Griffiths, Fifty Key Thinkers in International Relations (2000)
Displaying 1 of 1 review