LoN 1

Question 1

What factors led to the League’s failure?

Answer 1

• Lacked universality with USA never a member and others leaving
• It had to cope with a huge number of major crises
• War-wary democracies did not want any more conflict
• Failure of Anglo-French diplomacy against aggression and this may have been the real failure not the LoN

Question 2

What problems did the covenant have leading to its failure?

Answer 2

Too many loophole and ambiguities or alternatively too ambitious for sovereign states.

Question 3

What became the growth area of the LoN and how much of the budget did it end up consuming?

Answer 3

Economic, Social and Humanitarian work.

By 1939, 60% of the budget

Question 4

What important precedents were set by the Assembly itself?

Answer 4

• Make the meetings annual rather than 4 yearly
• Taking over financial control of the LoN
• Requiring the Council to provide a report every year on its activities

Question 5

How did the secretariat of the LoN prove it’s value?

Answer 5

1. A useful channel of communication between the many parts of the league
2. As a repository of information and experience about the unique problems of IOs

Question 6

What was the only occasion when the LoN was able to reach agreement on sanctions?

Answer 6

Italy after the invasion of Ethiopia

Question 7

What actions could have crushed the Ethiopian invasion?

Answer 7

UK and FRA could have shut the Suez Canal to Italian ships

Question 8

What was the problem with the economic sanctions imposed on ITA?

Answer 8

Sanctions were voluntary

LoN never took military action

Question 9

What do both the LoN and UN do to deal with the main goal of international security?

Answer 9

Both orgs embraced principle of COLLECTIVE SECURITY. An aggression by one state agains another would trigger a collective response from all members

Question 10

What IR style of thinking was the UN based on?

Answer 10

The realist paradigm

The UN recognised the inevitability of tension between states and existence of wars

Question 11

What IR theory was the LoN built around?

Answer 11

Idealist norms that emphasised the existence of collective interests.
Believed to lead to the avoidance of wars.

Question 12

What differences to the LoN did the UN framers plan?

Answer 12

Replace the decision making procedures that they believe led to the demise of the league

Question 13

What did the UN keep from the LoN?

Answer 13

Much of the structure

Question 14

What was the LoN’s exception to the use of the veto?

Answer 14

Parties involved in the dispute

Question 15

What did the sanctions on Italy consist of?

Answer 15

• Embargo on the export of war materials to ITA
• All exports boycotted
• Ban on loans to ITA

Question 16

What European territories were directly controlled by the League?

Answer 16

• The city of Danzig (as a free city)
• The Saar valley

Both eventually ended up in the hands of Nazi Germany