The 'quiet' death of the League of Nations

The League of Nations was the world's first multifunctional intergovernmental organisation. While it failed to achieve
its peacekeeping objectives, its economic and social work continued beyond its 'official' closure in April 1946,
concluding in September 1947. Scholars of both History and International Relations have habitually ignored this
'liquidation' period, and thereby failed to understand the organisation on its own terms.
The League is the only organisation of its kind to be closed down. In 2017, a time when international organisations
are increasingly strained by governments' retreat into selectively isolationist positions, this historical case study has
enormous contemporary relevance. The lack of appreciation of the League's liquidation process has meant that
prevailing concepts concerning international organisations remain unchallenged, and our ability to understand the
League is severely limited.
My study will address the following:
- How, in practice, did the work of the League come to a close?
- Who was working for the League after April 1946, and why?
-What was the role of leading personnel, such as the League's last Secretary-General, in its liquidation?
- What lessons can international organisations operative today draw from the League's liquidation?
- How does the League's closure challenge and help to refine existing models of intergovernmental
organisations?
This project will be based on both qualitative and quantitative research of a diverse range of sources, including
official League of Nations documentation, personal papers of those working for and alongside the organisation, and
national and media archives to trace wider reactions to and impacts of the closure process.