I am not well versed in history. The last time I studied it was in highschool, when I was 16, so the kind of analysis we were doing was quite broad and not very nuanced — most of our time was spent studying the run up to both world wars.
However, the simplicity of the topics means I remember it quite well. In particular, the numerous failures of the League of Nations, before WW2. They had three powers: 1.) They could denounce a country and try to encourage peaceful resolutions; 2.) they could apply economic sanctions; 3.) military action.
Military action never happened because the League of Nations didn’t have its own dedicated military force, and none of the countries who had the manpower necessary to take action wanted to commit troops so soon after WW1. Economic sanctions were useless, because none of the countries were willing to take the economic hit from apply sanctions to key things like steel and iron, and the US wasn’t even in the League, so any sanctioned country could just trade with the US. And moral condemnation didn’t work because obviously wagging your finger at an imperialist regime isn’t going to bother them when they know there will be no further actions.
We are now not even at level 1. International law looks very different today than it did 100 years ago, but the more things change, the more they stay the same. Spineless world leaders are going to drag us all into another world war. Do they honestly think that it will work to placate Trump? What fucking idiots. I hope history remembers them with disdain.
I am not well versed in history. The last time I studied it was in highschool, when I was 16, so the kind of analysis we were doing was quite broad and not very nuanced — most of our time was spent studying the run up to both world wars.
However, the simplicity of the topics means I remember it quite well. In particular, the numerous failures of the League of Nations, before WW2. They had three powers: 1.) They could denounce a country and try to encourage peaceful resolutions; 2.) they could apply economic sanctions; 3.) military action.
Military action never happened because the League of Nations didn’t have its own dedicated military force, and none of the countries who had the manpower necessary to take action wanted to commit troops so soon after WW1. Economic sanctions were useless, because none of the countries were willing to take the economic hit from apply sanctions to key things like steel and iron, and the US wasn’t even in the League, so any sanctioned country could just trade with the US. And moral condemnation didn’t work because obviously wagging your finger at an imperialist regime isn’t going to bother them when they know there will be no further actions.
We are now not even at level 1. International law looks very different today than it did 100 years ago, but the more things change, the more they stay the same. Spineless world leaders are going to drag us all into another world war. Do they honestly think that it will work to placate Trump? What fucking idiots. I hope history remembers them with disdain.