ABSTRACT
This paper examines the relationship between national interest, diplomacy, and international law. It argues that, instead of hindering the development of U.S. imperial structures, international law functioned largely as a tool of U.S. empire and helped to maintain the international status quo during the first half of the twentieth century. Interwar American initiatives to create international arrangements that would produce a world without war were demonstrated most notably by the creation of the League of Nations (1919) and the Pact of Paris (1928). After World War II and decolonisation, international conditions changed profoundly. The U.S. retreated from international organisations and turned increasingly to unilateral action to pursue its priorities.
