The Twenty-Year Crisis

Introduction

E.H. Carr’s influential 1939 book “The Twenty Years’ Crisis: 1919-1939” examined the turbulent interwar period between the two world wars. Carr, a British historian, journalist, and international relations theorist, wrote the book in response to the escalating international tensions that led to the outbreak of World War II.

Published on the eve of WWII, “The Twenty Years’ Crisis” provided a thorough critique of international relations in the preceding two decades. Carr challenged the prevailing optimism and liberal internationalism of the era, as exemplified by Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” speech and the establishment of the League of Nations.

Instead, Carr argued that utopian ideals and moralistic rhetoric were failing to address the realist dynamics of power politics. By analyzing the clash between utopian and realist worldviews, Carr shed light on why the League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles ultimately failed to preserve peace and stability.

The book’s title highlighted the two-decade period between the First and Second World Wars as a pivotal historical crisis. Carr’s “Twenty Years’ Crisis” concept became an influential framework for understanding the turbulent interwar era and the factors that contributed to the outbreak of another global conflagration.

The League of Nations

Formed in the aftermath of World War I, the League of Nations was the precursor to the United Nations and represented one of the first attempts at establishing an international organization focused on maintaining world peace and collective security.

The League of Nations was founded through the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. With the horrors of the Great War still fresh, there was a strong desire among many nations to create an institution that could prevent future global conflicts. The League aimed to provide an open international forum for discussion and dispute resolution, while also laying the groundwork for collective responses to aggression.

At its core, the League of Nations was driven by the concept of collective security, whereby member states would pledge to jointly defend each other against military attacks. This was considered an advancement from traditional alliances and balance-of-power systems which had clearly failed to avert World War I. If an act of aggression occurred, League members would respond by either applying economic sanctions or taking collective military action against the aggressor nation.

The founders of the League of Nations hoped this new model would deter future wars and engender greater cooperation between countries. Though the organization suffered from structural weaknesses that would ultimately limit its effectiveness, the League of Nations represented an important early effort at international institution-building in the quest for enduring world peace.

Structure of the League

The League of Nations had three main constitutional organs:

The Assembly

• The Assembly was composed of all member states, with each state having one vote.
• It met once a year to discuss matters of common interest like global health, prisoners of war, economics, and revisions to the League’s structure.
• Though it had power to make recommendations, unanimity was required for important issues like disarmament and it lacked enforcement authority.

The Council

• The Council began with 4 permanent members - Britain, France, Italy, and Japan. It later expanded to include 9 elected non-permanent members.
• The Council met more regularly throughout the year to oversee political disputes and security matters.
• It could make decisions with a majority vote, but the great powers often dominated the Council.

The Secretariat

• The Secretariat was the administrative organ led by the Secretary-General.
• It had a small staff to carry out day-to-day operations like preparing reports and managing committees.
• The Secretariat lacked real influence, serving mainly as a bureaucratic functionary.

Successes and Failures

The League of Nations had some early successes in settling disputes through arbitration and providing humanitarian assistance. Some examples include:

• The League settled a dispute between Sweden and Finland over the Aaland Islands in 1921. It decided that the islands should be under Finnish sovereignty, but with autonomous rights for the Swedish population. Both countries accepted the ruling.

• In 1922, the League successfully resolved another territorial dispute over Upper Silesia. The area was partitioned between Germany and Poland along the lines of an earlier plebiscite. This prevented a possible military conflict between the two countries.

• The League provided aid and repatriation services to over 400,000 prisoners of war left stranded in Germany after WWI. It also assisted refugees displaced by the war and Russian Civil War.

However, the League ultimately lacked real power and efficient decision-making capabilities:

• It had no permanent international armed forces at its disposal and could not compel sovereign states to accept its decisions.

• Unanimous agreement between all member states was required before the League could take substantive action. This often led to deadlock over contentious issues.

• Key powers like the United States never joined, while Germany, Japan and Italy withdrew in the 1930s. This severely undermined the League’s authority.

• The League proved ineffective at preventing and stopping aggressions by Italy, Japan and Nazi Germany during the 1930s. This failure set the stage for WWII.

So while the League achieved some early humanitarian and diplomatic successes, deeper structural issues rendered it unable to fulfill its mission of safeguarding peace. The idealistic vision behind its creation could not overcome geopolitical realities.

1919-1939 Timeline

The League’s timeline unfolded against a backdrop of political chaos, economic turmoil, and the rise of Hitler. Some key events include:

• 1919 - The Treaty of Versailles is signed, formally ending World War I. The treaty includes provisions to establish the League of Nations.

• 1920 - The League of Nations holds its first assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

• 1929 - The Great Depression begins with the Wall Street Crash, leading to economic crisis and hardship around the world.

• 1931 - Japan invades Manchuria in China, withdrawing from the League of Nations the following year. This is the first major challenge to the League.

• 1933 - Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany, leading to the rise of the Nazi regime.

• 1935 - Italy invades Ethiopia, despite Ethiopia appealing to the League of Nations for assistance. The League imposes limited sanctions on Italy, but cannot prevent the invasion.

• 1936 - Germany militarizes the Rhineland, violating the Treaty of Versailles. The League proves powerless to respond.

• 1937 - Japan invades more of China, committing atrocities like the Rape of Nanking. The League can do little to intervene.

• 1939 - Germany invades Poland, marking the start of World War II in Europe. The League of Nations is unable to prevent the outbreak of another major war.

Interwar Political Ideologies

The interwar period showcased diverse political ideologies that shaped international relations.

Wilson’s Idealism

Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States, promoted an idealistic worldview emphasizing international cooperation and collective security. His Fourteen Points outlined a vision for lasting world peace, including open diplomacy, freedom of navigation, and the establishment of the League of Nations. Wilson believed that through human reason, education, and institutions like the League, the world could achieve lasting peace and avoid war.

Lenin’s Communism

Vladimir Lenin led the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, establishing the first major communist state in the Soviet Union. Leninism envisioned world socialism achieved through the united workers seizing control of the means of production. This would overthrow the capitalist bourgeois and establish a “dictatorship of the proletariat.” Lenin saw communism as the inevitable next stage of historical development.

Churchill’s Realism

Winston Churchill, a British statesman, exemplified a realist worldview focused on national interests and power balances. In his wartime speeches as Prime Minister, Churchill emphasized state sovereignty and military strength. He viewed international relations as a competitive arena where states and leaders rationally pursue national interests. Churchill criticized the idealistic underpinnings of the League of Nations.

Fascism

Benito Mussolini established fascism in Italy, which then spread to Germany under Hitler. Fascism glorified the state above individual rights. It justified imperial expansion through extreme nationalism and militarism. Both Mussolini and Hitler exploited chaotic postwar conditions to consolidate dictatorial power. Their aggression ultimately led to World War 2.

Idealism vs Realism

E. H. Carr emphasized that the fundamental conflict between Idealist and Realist perspectives was a key factor that hindered the success of the League of Nations.

The Idealists held an optimistic view of human nature and international relations. They believed that the human capacity for reason could overcome differences between nations and usher in a new era of global cooperation and lasting peace. This Utopian perspective was embodied in Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points and his vision for the League as a forum that could harmoniously settle disputes through discussion and mutual understanding.

In contrast, the Realists had a more pessimistic outlook grounded in skepticism. They saw international relations as being based on each nation competing for power and pursuing its own self-interest. From the Realist standpoint, conflict between nations was inevitable due to the competitive global system. Carr chastised the Idealists as being naive and detached from reality.

At its core, the League exemplified the Idealist perspective that collective security and mutual cooperation could be achieved through international institutions. However, the Realists argued that power dynamics between self-interested states would undermine the League’s lofty ambitions. This fundamental divergence between the Utopian ideals of the League and the harsh geopolitical realities of the time period ultimately led to its downfall and failure to prevent the onset of World War II.

According to Carr, the League’s attempts to broker cooperation, often fueled by wishful thinking rather than pragmatic analysis, clashed with the competitive realpolitik maneuvering of ambitious nations like Germany, Italy and Japan. This disconnect between its idealistic mission and the Realist global landscape proved to be the League’s Achilles’ heel.

The Path to WWII

The interwar period was marked by the failure of idealism to overcome geopolitical realities. While the League of Nations represented a noble pursuit of collective security and lasting peace, its idealistic underpinnings were challenged by national self-interests and realist worldviews.

Several factors demonstrated the limits of the League in preventing another world war:

• The League lacked any real power or means of enforcement. It had no permanent army and could not compel member states to abide by its decisions.

• Member states often acted according to their own interests rather than for the collective good. This was seen when Britain and France appeased Hitler’s aggression, unwilling to challenge German rearmament and expansion.

• The League required unanimous decisions by the Council, enabling individual members to veto resolutions. This structural flaw rendered it ineffectual at key moments.

• Major powers like the US, Russia and Germany were not members, limiting the League’s authority and resources.

• Economic sanctions were the primary deterrent against aggression, but failed to stop states determined on military action. Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia demonstrated this weakness.

• As international tensions rose, cooperation through the League became increasingly difficult. Germany, Italy and Japan ultimately withdrew in the 1930s as they pursued expansionist policies.

While noble in vision, the League of Nations could not overcome the harsh realities of distrust, fear, and divergence of national interests that prevailed. Its dissolution marked the failure of idealism and foreshadowed the coming of an even deadlier global conflict. Despite best intentions, idealistic principles proved insufficient to manage international relations in a complex, realist world.

Conclusion

The concept of the ‘Twenty-Year Crisis’ emerged from E.H. Carr’s analysis of the period between the two World Wars, highlighting the interplay between opposing ideologies that shaped global relations. Carr examined how the idealistic aspirations embodied in the League of Nations were limited by prevailing realist constraints, as the organization struggled to foster cooperation and prevent conflict.

Ultimately, the competing perspectives of idealism and realism represented the central tension of the interwar period. The lofty goals of the League in promoting collective security and international harmony clashed with the harsh realities of national interests and power politics. This disconnect between utopian visions and pragmatic considerations marked the two decades between 1919 and 1939.

While idealists hoped the League of Nations would usher in a new era of peace, realists argued that national security concerns would continue to dominate foreign policy. This clash played out through the 1920s and 30s as the League failed to enforce disarmament, deter aggression by revisionist powers, and prevent the outbreak of another world war. The shortcomings of the League highlight the difficulties of promoting an idealistic agenda on a global scale.

In essence, Carr’s concept of the ‘Twenty-Year Crisis’ underscores how the interplay between idealism and realism in the interwar period shaped the path to World War II. The tensions between these diverging perspectives lay at the heart of global affairs, as ambitious dreams collided with harsh realities. This volatile mix of optimism and pragmatism was a defining feature of the era preceding the Second World War.