The League of Nations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The fusion of Nations - Essay ExampleWar weariness is a common phenomenon, more so when the gains from such wars are intangible and far removed from house servant affairs. In the aftermath of prolonged periods of conflict, war stripe assumes a high priorityandthe favoured technique is to institute measures of cooperation and consultationwith a plenty to preventing war(Buzan 1983, 163). The League of Nations established in 1919 in the aftermath of World War I, was one such attempt to change the focus of war prevention from individual to collective security.For such an organization to be effective, it had perforce to have the backing of the major powers. Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and later Germany and Russia - all great powers in their have right - joined the League of Nations. The United Sates on the other hand, was the only major power not to join the League in spite of having been instrumental in creating it in the first place. According to Meg Harney, While an exce llent idea in theory, the League met with repeated problemssimply because nations had not adapted their foreign policy to change. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee was one such institution that could neither envision nor endorse this shift from a, balance of power circumspection to a new diplomacy giving greater weightage to collective security. This dichotomy i.e. ... onal requirements was highlighted by Robert Putnam in his two-level game theory, and the failure of the United States to join the League of Nations could be analyzed in this context. To this end a brief overview of the theory would not be out of place to place in perspective the salient aspects of the theory, against the backdrop of the events leading to the formation of the League of Nations.The meeting between President Wilson and the Senate over the formation of the League of Nations has been analyzed form many viewpoints. While some analysts see it as nothing more than the solution of partisan politics, o thers view it as a clash of ideas between the transnationalists and the isolationists. Though formally articulated only in 1988, the US failure to join the League of Nations can also be viewed through the lens of Putnams two-level game theory. It is a well-known fact that national leaders are simultaneously discharging their duties at two levels - the international level and the national level - with a dynamic interplay between the two.National leaders do not conceive of foreign policy in a domestic vacuum, nor domestic policies without considering the international ramifications. As far as foreign policy is concerned, they have to consider the interests of their domestic constituencies, balancing the costs of implementing foreign policy initiatives against domestic imperatives such as national economy and social welfare. Thus, the right moves at one level (of the game) can affect the other level, ultimately impacting upon the deliberations at that level. An proportion could be th at of a magnet held below a sheet of paper controlling the movement of a metallic token placed above the sheet. holding this in mind, Robert Putnam summarized the connections