Page 47 - DIVA_1_2013

From Collective

Security to Global
Rearmament The League of Nations

From collective security to global rearmament
ohn Fox and Marit
Fosse, have written
J a book entitled The
League of Nations: From
Collective Security to Global
Rearmament,

They take us back to those pro-
mising days of the twentieth cen-
tury when the predecessor of the
United Nations was set up fol-
lowing the carnage of the First
World War. Despite the most
illustrious hopes that the Lea-
gue would guarantee peace
throughout the world, it failed
gloriously and did not survive the
Second World War.

Nevertheless, for the first time in
the history of the human race, the
League laid the foundations for
international collaboration in the
fields of justice, trade, labour,
health, culture, transport, refu-
gees, science, etc. It also set in
motion the processes of decolonization. However, Second, it is written in an easily accessible lan-
it was the Wall Street collapse of 1929 that encou- guage. The aim, according to the authors, is to make
raged dictatorships to prosper in Germany, Italy, the general public aware of the dramatic events in
Spain, Portugal and Japan. The political and mi- the period between the two world wars when the
litary turmoil of the 19305 rendered the League League of Nations was active. The authors' main
powerless. concern is that the errors of the past shall not be
repeated. Let us hope that we can weather the pre-
There are two unique features about this book. sent economic turmoil without falling into the pit-
First of all, it is full of authentic illustrations, both falls of nationalism and xenophobia that destroyed
from contemporary newspapers and also from of- the League of Nations.
ficial documents drawn directly from the Archives
of the League of Nations.

History 45J