Founding of the UN: A fresh start
World War Two was very different from World War One. Yet in one respect, it prompted a similar response: a new world organisation would be set up. The new organisation …
Course: World War 1: Paris 1919 - A New World Order?
Background of The Permanent Court of International Justice
The Paris Peace Conference strengthened the idea that international disputes should be addressed by impartial courts, on the basis of international law. In retrospect, we can say that it marked …
A world re-ordered: infographic
Lasting territorial legacies of Paris 1919 Key Examples The following maps indicate some of the changes made to the world map at the end of the World War 1. The …
Fatal weaknesses: the Abyssinian crisis
The League’s response to the Abyssinian crisis was widely seen as a disaster. Three contemporary reactions illustrate the point. Have a look at them and bear them in mind: in …
Paris Peace Conference and the New Era in International Relations
Perhaps the best way to begin it – and to illustrate the novelty of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 – is to look at three simple figures: 166: the …
Snapshot 2: eradicating polio
This second snapshot provides information on how the UN fights global disease. The emphasis is on polio, which the world community has almost eradicated. This snapshot consists of two short …
World governance – then and now
As the three ‘snapshots’ provided in the last three steps illustrate, the world has come a long way from the days of 1919, when the League of Nations was created. …
Revised League or genuinely new?
Was the United Nations something genuinely new, or just a revised version of the League of Nations? In this video, two Christians discuss the matter between themselves.
The League is dead, long live the UN
Whilst the League of Nations failed to prevent the next (even more catastrophic) world war, the idea of a world organisation survived. In Week 3, we will discuss how it …
International courts: their current role
The Paris Peace Conference set up the first permanent international court, but almost a century on, courts play a relatively marginal role in world affairs. Christian meets an expert on …
Building a more just world: Paris’ other legacies
In addition to re-drawing boundaries, the Paris Peace Conference engaged with many more matters – after four years of war, it re-established systems of international cooperation. In many areas, it …
Trianon trauma: the Hungarian settlement
In this video, Christian examines the WW1 treaty that perhaps had the most dramatic impact: the treaty signed at the Palace of Trianon.
Introduction to week 2
The League of Nations was one of the outcomes of the Paris Peace Conference, but the peacemakers spent most of their time discussing other matters – such as territorial disputes, …
A great experiment: a partial success
The League of Nations is widely seen as a failure, and in many fields, it did fail. But it broke new ground, and it enjoyed many small successes. In this …
The first world organisation
The Paris Peace Conference set up the League of Nations, the first ‘world organisation’. In this video, Christian introduces the League and explains why its establishment marked an important step …