ABSTRACT

This chapter seeks to place the United Nations in a political developmental context, with a specific emphasis on the relationship with its League of Nations predecessor. In so doing, it advances two central arguments. First, like its League predecessor, the United Nations did not emerge in a vacuum. The political debates that surrounded its negotiation and implementation took place on a historical continuum, tempered by past experiences. Second, for all of the criticism that the League of Nations received, it paradoxically reinforced and even strengthened the consensus behind many of the core ideas upon which the League was based. For this often overlooked reason the League, in ways good and bad, continues to influence international relations today. The League legacy thus continues to inform and structure modern international politics, even in the context of today's transformed global environment. In sum, the League served as both a foil and a foundation for the United Nations.