ABSTRACT
This chapter narrates the history of international relations and diplomacy of the “interwar” era through the prism of the Washington System, a new order in the Asia-Pacific that emerged at the Washington Conference of 1921–1922. The Washington System involved world powers from three continents, and enshrined liberal internationalist values of arms limitation, imperial retreat, multilateral cooperation, conference diplomacy, and liberal capitalism into the politics of East Asia. Focusing on the rise and fall of the Washington System between 1921 and 1938 highlights the “interwar” as two distinct periods—the global 1920s and the regional 1930s—with the turning point being the Manchurian Incident of 1931. The Washington System reveals the 1920s as an era of global order creation, and its long breakdown in the 1930s heralded an era of regional order creation that would last until the end of World War II.
