International Arbitration, The Pacific Settlement of Disputes and the French Security-Disarmament Dilemma (1919-1931)
International arbitration played an ambiguous role in French planning over national security during the years following the First World War, as policymakers faced the challenge of dealing with the powerful post-war movement in favour of international disarmament. It was a French-driven initiative in 1924 that accorded arbitration a central role as a means to ensure [...]
A La Recherche D’Une Guerre Gagnee: The Ligue Des Droits De L’Homme and the War Guilt Question (1918-1922)
Initially conceived as an organization dedicated to the defence of human rights on an individual scale, during the Great War the Ligue des droits de l’homme took the avowedly political position of supporting the Union sacrée. The bona fides of France’s crusade against Germany was vigorously contested by a minority within the Ligue, however, which [...]
‘Generalissimo’ or ‘Skunk’? The Impact of Georges Clemenceau’s Leadership on the Western Alliance in 1918
The winter of 1917–18 marked a nadir in Allied morale during the First World War. To address this problem, British prime minister David Lloyd George issued a liberal war aims speech on 5 January 1918. Three days later American president Woodrow Wilson set forth his famous Fourteen Points. Historians, however, have not paid sufficient attention [...]
Tradition and Adaptation: The Social Universe of the French Foreign Ministry in the Era of the First World War
Attempts to ‘republicanize’ and ‘democratize’ the Quai d’Orsay before 1900 had limited impact on the practices and predispositions of the foreign ministry personnel. More important was the ministry’s response to changes in the international sphere in the late nineteenth century and again after the First World War. The explosion of international trade and introduction of [...]