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Der Völkerbund und die „Waffe der Öffentlichkeit“

Abstract

This article argues that it is impossible to write the history of the League of Nations without taking into account the methodological and theoretical framework provided by the New Diplomatic History. Since the League of Nations was never granted what could be called real political military power, it had to use other means to achieve its goals. “Softer” diplomatic strategies were therefore never merely decorative accessories of “hard” diplomatic practices, but the only ones available to the League of Nations. Thus, even the question of whether the League of Nations failed can be answered in different ways; while the organization could not prevent Hitler from starting the Second World War in 1939, it served as a laboratory for new diplomatic practices as long as it existed.