Book contents
- Peacemaking and International Order after the First World War
- Peacemaking and International Order after the First World War
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Ordering Concepts
- Part II Institutions
- Part III Actors and Networks
- Part IV Counterpoint
- 16 The Persistence of Old Diplomacy
- Afterword
- Index
16 - The Persistence of Old Diplomacy
The Paris Peace Settlement in Perspective
from Part IV - Counterpoint
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 May 2023
- Peacemaking and International Order after the First World War
- Peacemaking and International Order after the First World War
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Ordering Concepts
- Part II Institutions
- Part III Actors and Networks
- Part IV Counterpoint
- 16 The Persistence of Old Diplomacy
- Afterword
- Index
Summary
The sudden end of the war in 1918 gave rise to high expectations of the forthcoming peace congress. Yet neither the gathering at Paris nor the settlement to which it gave its name marked a new beginning in international politics. ‘New Diplomacy’ proved to be a short-lived blossoming. Old diplomacy, with its focus on the management of relations between states, persisted, though bearing outwardly the stamp of Geneva. Openness and democratic ideals did not lend themselves to peacemaking but rather complicated international relations. Not only was the Paris settlement not ‘a building finished and complete in all respects’, it also did not rest on stable foundations. In erecting it, the peacemakers had undermined the primacy of order; and into the cracks in the new building seeped malign ideas and narrowly defined interests which, ultimately, brought it down.
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- Peacemaking and International Order after the First World War , pp. 381 - 406Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023