German Dsarmament and the Creation of an International Disarmament Process, 1920?1934.

This paper will examine the inter-relationship between Germany’s enforced disarmament following the First World War and the international disarmament process launched under the auspices of the League of Nations by the peace settlement. It will consider three linked themes: (i) how the initial, highly-limited model of what international disarmament entailed steadily evolved into the far more ambitious conception of a general limitation agreement covering all spheres of armaments and embracing all states; (ii) how Germany’s political position evolved from that of an object with no voice in the disarmament debates to that of an integral participant with an effective veto power on any agreement; (iii) how differing British and French views of the importance of Germany’s continued enforced disarmament for European security effectively blocked a successful compromise on international disarmament during the years from the war’s end until the collapse of the League’s World Disarmament Conference in 1933. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]