ABSTRACT
The nineteenth century gave birth to a series of institutional structures designed to govern aspects of socio-political and economic life beyond the confines of the state (Murphy 1994: 46–152). Yet, it was not until 1919 that a concerted effort was made to develop a system of governance with the potential to penetrate the furthest reaches of human settlement. This system was to find its first expression in the League of Nations and the International Labor Organization (ILO), and its impetus in the dual spectres of world war and social revolution. The League was intended to provide a series of international commitments that would, in part, mitigate the incidence of war without outlawing a state's right to take up arms and, in part, open up new markets by promoting the principle of self-determination in an attempt to erode imperial preference systems. The ILO, in contrast, was directed at dissipating social unrest through enhancing the rights of workers in an effort to abate the possibility of further Bolshevik-style revolutions challenging the authority of Europe's ruling elites (Cox 1973: 102, 1996: 422; Hughes 1999: 38, 53). Taken together, both organizations were intended, rhetorically at least, to provide the institutional foundation upon which world peace could ensue.
