How was United Shaped by the Failure of League of Nations - Essay Example

?How was United Shaped by the Failure of League of Nations? Background: The First World War was the unique war of its kind. Mankind had not seen thiskind of devastation before. It entailed countries from different continents and resulted in loss of millions of lives and left many more helpless. In the wake of such situation, the world community realised the need for establishing an entity that would ensure global peace and prevent any similar war in future. Different proposals came forth from different ends. One of the proposals was that of the League of Nations (Haynes, et al., 2013, 121). League of Nations was not a state, it was commonly acknowledged and established entity through the mutual consent of the countries from all over the world. The pioneer of this idea was American President Woodrow Wilson who was famously known for his 14 points gave the idea of an organization of similar magnitude that would set the world on its footings for development and progress (Hakim, 2002, 16). League of Nations was an effective entity on many accounts; however, it failed on numerous fronts and as a result made the countries feel the need of replacing it by a more effective entity. The more effective entity came into existence after the Second World War. That Entity was called United Nations Organization (Conforti, 2005, 6). Briefly put, United Nations Organisation came into existence because of the inability, weaknesses, and silence of League of Nations in many cases (Arp, 2013, 717). The real need and purpose of establishing United Nations organization can be understood by comprehending the overall structure and working of League of Nations and further looking into the areas where League of Nations failed to deliver. Based on that an analysis and observation can be drawn which would allow understanding the establishment of United Nations Organisations. Objectives: The paper looks into the overall structure and scope of United Nations Organizations along with studying of the factors that resulted in the failure of League of Nations. Key words: Global peace, World community, Humanitarian grounds, Socio economic dimension, War dimension. Comparison of Agendas: The Agenda of both the organizations were exactly the same, enacting global peace, bringing about immediate end to disputes, resolving them through good counsels and establishing global order that would allow overall development and progress of humanity (Johnstone, 2009, 1). Despite the similarity in agenda, the former suffered on account of its structure and weaknesses in its outer formed units. League of Nations lacked several necessary councils and bodies that are part of United Nations and now U.N stands in a much better position than the predecessor global organization. Broadly it was the political failure of League of Nations that invoked the need and realization for an entity that would be far stronger than the predecessor and would guarantee peace across the globe. Achievements of United Nations Organizations: Despite the number of minor weak links of U.N, the organization stands firm and better than its predecessor on multiple accounts. Since its inception nearly six decades ago, the entity has enabled preventing any major war outbreak that might engulf the major states in a war. The world since the establishment of United Nations has seen the complete stoppage of any nuclear attack by any other country unlike the days of League of Nations when United States of America launched a nuclear strike upon Japan’s twin cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Watson, 2010, 33). The fact that every country on the surface of earth is part of the United Nations General Assembly adds to the strength and positives of U.N as an entity. The number has been constantly increasing and it has not seen any withdrawal by any nation in the manner League of Nations did. Socioeconomic facet of U.N: United Nations Organizations has a far more comprehensive and stronger socioeconomic domain. It is a multifaceted entity that aims at eradicating poverty, literacy issues, injustices, racial discrimination, intolerance, religious extremism, diseases, enhancing science and technology, all these were of little value and presence in the case of League of Nations. UNESCO, UNICEF, UNHRC, are few of the socioeconomic entities established for the sole purpose of enacting global social and economic development (Basu, 2004, 199). This stands unprecedented when compared to the League of Nations and its role towards developing a more prosperous society with equal opportunities and justice for all within the same universe. United Nations Peace Keeping Force: U.N has enacted a special peace keeping force, comprising of the personnel from different member countries and it works towards the global peace. Any area that is hit by any natural calamity, disaster or is target of ethnic conflict or atrocities in any shape, the U.N brings together the states in form of an emergency session of Security Council and sends over troops to the affected areas. The role of United Nations Peace keeping force was applaud able in the Kosovo crisis(Mays, 2010, 158) that took place in 1990s where pogrom and carnage was on show on account of atrocities on citizens who had been claiming independence and civil and social rights. Formation of League of Nations: The manner in which League of Nations came into existence was a weak start to the overall initiation of such a major idea. Europe was divided into three blocks, the defeated ones, the strong party and the weak ones. The strong party influenced most of the events and demanded maximum reparations and spoils of the War (Feyter, 2005, 35), there was little say for the weaker or defeated nations. The disapproval and lack of Support Woodrow Wilson enjoyed back home from the opposition parities made the cause further weak and gave little formal grounds to creating such an entity (Jenner, 2010, 54). Element of suspicion between the member states while forming it, formulating the terms and conditions to the self interest, actions based on vanity and vengeance dictated the overall scenario and atmosphere of the formation of League of Nations, hence an overall weak start to the world level organization. Sabotage of initial Articles and covenants: Disapproval back home by the Republicans and demand for exemption and backing out from Article X made the overall covenant weak for a good start that was needed for such a giant scaled organization. The Republicans felt that the covenant would restrict United State’s role and influence in the affairs of Europe since it formally aimed at ending its long lived policy of isolation (Willner & Kaplan, 2009, 238). Non acceptance of Treaty of Versailles back home: The internal politics of American political scenario impacted the overall outlook in the post world war days. Marked by internal rifts, disputes and opposition, Woodrow Wilson and Henry Lodge took a rough path and led to the non approval of the terms of treaty of Versailles (Kellogg, 2010, 208), both being skeptical of the success and influence in the political spectrum, allowed little space to one another and overall impact was the weak establishment of League of Nations. Role of Super Power: It can be safely said that one of the major reasons to the weak foundation and further working of the League of Nations was the absence of a super power United States of America (Lulat, 2008, 126). The state that had brokered peace between the two blocs during the war days, and had brought the war to an early end than expected, its absence had directly influence on the outcome and performance of League of Nations. The ironic fact: The irony of the matter and the one condition that sums up the overall situation and background behind failure of league of the nation is the role of United States of America. Despite that fact that United States played a significant role in bringing the war to end, mediating the terms between two parties, proposing the 14 points, bringing forward the Treaty of Versailles, yet the bitterest fact is the point that United States of America never joined the League of Nations. This goes down into history and diary of League of Nations as a setback, disappointment and poor decision making by the world community. An entity that was aimed to bring about global peace and order would be of little influence and impact without the presence of a super power that had recently influenced and brought the participants to the table to come to terms and negotiate conditions of peace and find a way out of their issues. The proceedings: After getting upon an uneven and bouncy start, the League of Nations started working in its best resources and capacities. However it kept on tasting the midway hiccups and number of states kept rolling out of the charter and umbrella of League of Nations. Instead of growing in number, the League of Nations saw a fluctuating trend with certain amount joining the League and other group of members leaving the League from time to time. Number of instances that came to forth are the following countries and their withdrawal. Argentina left the League in 1921(Reinalda, 2009, 198) on account of its disputes and disagreement of the point that only partial membership was taken up by several countries with many other staying completely out of it. Brazil as an another example walked out of the proceedings of the League of Nations in 1926 (Makong’o & Muchanga, 254)based on its own concerns that it felt League of Nations was not able to fulfill. Chile was another country, which had little political and global influence yet walked out of the corridors of the League in 1938 (Shuter, 2004, 45) on account of its disputes and concerns. Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, all these with little influence and say in the global politics yet expressing their concerns spoke volumes of how weak the organization was in its existence. Hence a general pattern persisted with uneven proceedings and more of individual and country wise political dictation orientation rather than global peace and centralized power oriented entity and its rulings. The major events that caused the direct failure of the League: The events that defined the future of League of Nations in terms of its abolishment was the Second World War. The sole purpose of League was to ensure that no major war takes place like the one that the world had seen two decades ago. Once the war started, the League lost its moral and political standing as a global entity of enacting the global peace. It was matter of time before the world community would sit together demand the scrapping of the existing entity and propose the establishment of a far more effective and stronger entity in the name of United Nations Organizations. The fact that the Second World war took over half decade in the battle fields to diminish before the worse possible outcome caused further damage to the structure and existence of League of Nations and as a result it suffered the natural death in form of abolishment. Failure of League of Nations on account of military expansions: League of Nations had little concrete steps towards eradicating the ambitions driven by the axis’s pursuit of weapons and military might. Two movements that came to forth in the form of Fascism and Nazism were little curtailed through the power of League of Nations. The two were driven by the motive of revenging the past defeats and out smarting the rivals through military endeavors and expansionist policies. Major nexus were built in this regard between different nations, namely Japan, Germany, Turkey and Italy. The Berlin Baghdad Nexus, railway tracks establishment, all came in as an effort to strengthen their position for potential future battle and war with the arch enemies (Dekanic, et al., 2005, 71). The case of W.W.1 reparations and little look after of the Defeated nations: The World War 1 clauses were too severe in their outlook; the League of Nations had not substantive strategy to change the mindset of people who had brought about the wreckage and destruction upon the world in the First World War. The mindset that had caused the damage was still looming actively and hovering as a dark cloud on peaceful future. Austria and Hungry that were the partners to the central powers in the First World War were left economically and socially underprivileged( (Feldman, 2004), 6). Their partition based on the aspirations and desires of the Allies and other Western Powers had little acknowledgment back home and people saw this with resentment over the decisions of League of Nations. One of the positives that can be derived from the League was the formation of International Court of Justice in Hague (Burgis, 2009, 19). The failure to nurturing Democracy: One of the distinguishing factor that separates the two is the intent and resolve shown by U.N and League of Nations for democratization of the different countries. Fascism, Nazism, and other absolute forms of governments in those days between the 20s and 30s decade represented the helplessness of the League (Gershoni & Jankowski, 2010, 85). U.N in contrast has always stressed for democracy enactment and promotion in the underdeveloped parts of the world where political orders are imbalanced or driven by military dictatorships. Lack of Security Council: Unlike the United Nations, there was no vetoing agency such as Security Council. As a result many countries violated the terms of peace and agreement stated under the charter and covenant of League of Nations. Japan on many occasions violated the account of peaceful agreements; the dispute between Italy and Yugoslavia was another similar event that left League of Nations helpless. Establishing a universal and stronger council in the name of General Assembly and Security Council: The League of Nations did not exhibit any central force such as the General Assembly or the Security Council that would meet in the cases of emergency and take upon the challenges the world was faced with. Security Council as an effective entity has come to the rescue on many accounts and events and led to interventions for the best council and purposes and prevented any major conflict from rising. Similarly the presence of effective entity such as General Assembly has led to a continuous presence and relationship building between the nations that reduce the chances of any outbreak and isolation that was observed during the days of League of Nations. Any nation that has concerns and issues with regard to the territorial issues, or political disputes with any other nation directly contacts the United Nations and seeks its amicable solution. Participation of the World Powers in U.N: Unlike League, U.N entailed the membership of the major powers of the world. Japan, China, United States of America, U.S.S.R, Germany all were brought in the fold of the U.N. this was one of the main reason why United Nations stand as a stronger and rational and valid force despite six decades. Despite the differences and disputes, no country has gone out of the prism and circle of U.N. The presence of super powers allow for strengthening the overall structure and foundation of the organization and allows the socio economic perspective to further develop and work for the betterment of the mankind in social, cultural, educational and health sectors. References: Arp, R., 2013. 1001 Ideas That Changed the Way We Think. 1st ed. s.l.:Simon and Schuster. 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