dif er ent approach. The United Nations, for example, reflects the successes and the
failures of its pre de ces sor organ ization the League of Nations.
the United nations
The United Nations is a product of a historical pro cess; it reflects pro cesses during the
nineteenth century when the Eu ro pean powers experimented with the Concert of
Eu rope described in Chapter 2, when public international unions formed and when
states established permanent mechanisms for conflict resolution through the Hague
system. But, most of all, the United Nations is a product of the League of Nations.
Founded following World War I, the goal of the League was to end all wars; indeed,
half of the League Covenant’s provisions focused on preventing war. If dispute resolu-
tion failed, sanctions would follow, and should they fail, states would act against an
aggression by all states acting together, under the idea of collective security, an idea
Chapter 8 explains in depth.
The League did enjoy a number of successes, many of them on territorial issues. It
conducted plebiscites in Silesia and the Saar and demarcated the German- Polish border.
At the UN headquarters in New York City, po liti cal representatives from 193 member countries
debate many critical issues, including whether to respond to civil strife in Mali and Syria and
how to address environmental and health threats.
214 CHAPTER SEvEN ■ IGOs, InternatIOnal law, and nGOs