The Middle East after World War I

Extract

[...] However, it was just a beginning for Kerr and Hobson's prospective world government system. Their desire was encapsulated in the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, which made war an illegal instrument of policy and enforced for peaceful conflict settlement (Doc 6). These treaties, although ill-conceived in their execution, symbolized crucial pioneering steps towards the jurisprudence of internationalism. Obstacles to Internationalism Persistent Nationalism On the contrary, the documents indicate that the main drawback is embedded nationalism as the "root" of war according to Kerr (Doc 1). [...]

[...] The capitalist states, such as UK and the US, considered communism as an enemy in respect to private property and a free market economy. Overcoming this divide was a big problem for the internationalists. As communist countries like the Soviet Union dismissed the League of Nations organizations as "imperialistic tools", capitalist powers dominated the internationalist actions. Instead of a united internationalist movement, there were developed two opposed interpretations of these competing ideas which led to different way of organization. The former socio-economic order clashed with the newly-emerged internationalism, bringing the matter of future international cooperation to a halt. [...]

[...] Hobson presents this idea of an "International Government" with a legislative arm that could be used to prevent disagreements and an executive body that would carry out the resolutions. These intellectuals offer the ideological basis for the priority of international over national cohesion. Institutionalizing International Cooperation theories found practical implementation in international organizations like the League of Nations which was established in 1919 and included binding covenants among members obligating them to protect each other from aggression through either economic sanctions or military force if needed (Doc 5). [...]

[...] The actual internationalist reforms needed the governments to ignore the matter of sovereignty to some extent. This state was much far from the masses' mentality. Conclusion In conclusion, the excerpts expose the rise of internationalist ideas after the war, as global governance and security mechanisms such as the League of Nations were conceived. However, they also demonstrate the existence and extent of the underlying systemic challenges such as the forces of nationalism, and the Cold War capitalist/communist that largely prevented the implementation of the broad internationalist vision that had been initially developed during this period. [...]