After the devastation of World War I, the League of Nations was supposed to secure world peace. Strict arms restrictions for the defeated nations and international control mechanisms were intended to prevent renewed armament. However, the contradictions between imperialist interests, anti-colonial movements, and revanchist ambitions prevented the establishment of a stable international peace order.
PD Dr. Daniel Stahl, historian at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and our colleague at Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions, has studied the attempts to regulate the international arms trade in the interwar period. In the new edition of “Zu Gast bei L.I.S.A.”, an interview format of the Gerda Henkel Foundation’s science portal, he talks about the ambivalence of the peace order at that time and draws parallels to today’s global rearmament.
You can find more on this topic in Daniel Stahl’s current publication: “Bedrohliches Geschäft – Waffenhandel und Völkerrecht in Zeiten imperialer Expansion” (Threatening Business – Arms Trade and International Law in Times of Imperial Expansion).
Photo: L.I.S.A.
