Literature on the League of Nations following World War II concluded the League was destined to fail as not sufficiently "realist" in orientation. As the issues of failed states and ethnic conflict reemerged in the late twentieth century and the emergence of transnational history in academia allowed new perspectives to come out on the league. The League historical importance extends beyond the realm of its failure to preserve the peace: it existed in a transitional period of world institutions where the collapse of empires coincided with the first attempts at global goverance through legal institutions.
Created to maintain the peace, the League suffered an epic fail. Yet Pederson and other scholars contend the League provided a useful setup for foreign ministers to hammer out great power agreements to that effect. Abandoning Wilsonian rhetoric, the League opened more doors than it shut in the 1920s and was active in economic, political, and transnational issues. The 1930s cannot be blamed on 1919: other factors, especially the Great Depression, wrought them. League reliance on public opinion hampered as well as aided the cause of peace as the public would not always favor peace or the status quo, diplomats might use the organization simply to parrot platitudes while conducting serious negotiations behind closed doors, in other words: realpolitk would remain the course of the day.
Reconciling the ideal world of all states operating on the same ethical and administrative logic to the realities of power disparities in international politics justly absorbed much of the League's attention. With imperial and strategic interests conflicting with self-representation, the League found itself confronting issues of sovereignty. Protecting minorities in Eastern Europe, though not universally, marked a major development in international organizational history.
On the one hand, the League lacked the power to enforce penalties against Poland etc absent cooperation from France and Britain. For some critics, the League's reliance on state actors ensured secret manipulations would impede real protections and impeded petitioners from finding receptive audiences for their claims. For others, the publicity of infringement claims provided political opportunities for irridentists. An attempt at a synthesis illuminated that while serious about protecting minority rights, the integrity of the League and 1919 settlement proved higher goals. Holding the League to a realistic standard rather than an idealistic one reveals adroit professionals sincerely dedicated and often succeeding in preventing ethnic conflicts from simmering into wars.
The mandate system marked the first point in western history where direct imperial control of extracontinental territory gave an international organization an opportunity to create norms and rules governing international development. While national and strategic interests superseded any others, mandated territories were at times run with placating the League in mind. Generalizations aside, the most League accomplished was articulating that aggressive conquest as an illegitimate form of sovereignty proved enduring and where norms and interests coincided, accomplishments were there.
Refugees, epidemics, and economic crises taxed the power of independent organizations and new states who discovered the great powers preferred a League solution to direct intervention. Institutions created by the League helped set up the United Nations. These technical aspects attracted wider international cooperation than any other projects. States with interests that extended beyond their borders found the League an effective tool to attain them. Where outside individuals not interfering with state projects could make a difference, more often than not, it was individuals inside the organization that mobilized iniative. The international bureaucracy, its professionalism and efficiency, helped make the League more appealing as a tool for advancing interests, and sometimes redefining those interests.
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