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11 - Preventive Diplomacy, Peacekeeping and Peacemaking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2025

By
Ivan Ingravallo  and
Pavle Kilibarda
General editor
Randall Lesaffer
Edited by
Robert Kolb  and
Momchil Milanov
Randall Lesaffer
Affiliation:
KU Leuven and Tilburg University
Robert Kolb
Affiliation:
Université de Genève
Momchil Milanov
Affiliation:
International Court of Justice
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Summary

Both the theoretical and practical roots of contemporary preventive diplomacy, peacekeeping and peacemaking trace back to the League of Nations. Starting with the Vilna dispute in 1920, the League organised collective action on several occasions, achieving varying degrees of success in different parts of the world. Although the League was ultimately unsuccessful in its overarching objective of preventing another global conflict, its results in preventing local conflicts from erupting or escalating have been unduly neglected. Furthermore, although a theoretical framework for preventive diplomacy, peacekeeping and peacemaking would not be developed until many decades after the League had dissolved, its basic contours may be found already in the work and reflections of the organisation’s bodies and functionaries. This chapter analyses the League’s pioneering work in an attempt to present the organisation’s own contribution and better understand these phenomena in light of their early iterations.

Keywords

preventive diplomacypeacekeepingpeacemakingVilnacollective security
Type
Chapter
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The Cambridge History of International Law , pp. 340 - 361
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Further Reading

Baer, George W., ‘Sanctions and security: the League of Nations and the Italian–Ethiopian War, 1935–1936’, International Organization, 27 (1973) 165–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Bourneuf, Pierre-Étienne, ‘La Société des Nations et la force internationale à Vilna (1920–1921): Un projet précurseur pour le maintien de la paix?’, Relations internationales, 166 (2016) 87–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourneuf, Pierre-Étienne, ‘We have been making history: the League of Nations and the Leticia dispute (1932–1934)’, International History Review, 39 (2017) 592–614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brockelbank, William J., ‘The Vilna dispute’, American Journal of International Law, 20 (1926) 483–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
d’Aspremont, Jean, ‘The League of Nations and the power of “experiment narratives” in international institutional law’, International Community Law Review, 22 (2020) 275–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Kolb, Robert, ‘Article 11’ in Robert Kolb (ed.), Commentaire sur le Pacte de la Société des Nations (Brussels: Bruylant 2015) 447–553.Google Scholar
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