Abstract
The words of Isaiah,* much quoted and finding resonances throughout all human history, symbolise the ubiquitous yearning for a peaceful world in which political differences are settled by talk and not by physical conflict. This vision of a harmonious international order was one of the motivating forces behind the creation of the League of Nations (and later of the United Nations). It was not the only factor. People also envisaged how human rights within states could be protected, how the benefits of medical science could be brought to all, how the global environment could be protected, and much else — all within the framework of international law.
And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Isaiah 2:4
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Notes
These various ideas are discussed in F. P. Walters, A History of the League of Nations (London: Oxford University Press, 1952) Ch. 4.
J. L. Brierly, The Law of Nations: An Introduction to the International Law of Peace (London: Oxford University Press, 1963)
F. S. Northedge, The League of Nations: Its Life and Times, 1920–1946 (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1988)
See James Barros, Office Without Power: Secretary-General Sir Eric Drummond, 1919–1933 (London: Oxford University Press, 1979).
George Scott, The Rise and Fall of the League of Nations (London: Hutchinson, 1973) p. 39.
Wilson, Edith, Memoirs of Mrs Woodrow Wilson (London: Putnam, 1939) pp. 278–9.
Gene Smith, When the Cheering Stopped (London: Hutchinson, 1964) pp. 54–5.
Daniel Yergin, Shattered Peace: The Origins of the Cold War and the National Security (Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin, 1980) p. 44.
Hugh Brogan, History of the United States of America (London: Longman, 1985) p. 593.
A criticism of South Africa’s handling of its mandate in South West Africa is given in Ruth First, South West Africa (Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin, 1963) pp. 169–74.
E. E. Reynolds, The League Experiment (London: Nelson, 1939) p. 106.
Emilio de Bono, Anno XIII: The Conquest of an Empire (London: Cresset Press, 1937) pp. 13–17.
The Earl of Avon, The Eden Memoirs: Facing the Dictators (London, 1962) p. 227.
Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War (Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin, 1965) p. 338.
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© 1994 Geoff Simons
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Simons, G. (1994). Roots. In: The United Nations. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23389-2_1
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