Was the 1928 Paris Peace Pact really a failure?

Almost since the day of its signing on August 27, 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact—formally known as the General Treaty for Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy—has been considered a failure. Among students and observers of international affairs it is seen as an oddity and sideshow if not an object of ridicule. As the authors of The Inter­nationalists point out, “three years after the grand pronouncement, Japan invaded China. Four years after that, Italy invaded Ethiopia. Four years later, Germany invaded Poland and most of Europe.” In a little more than a decade, the dream of comprehensive peace turned into total war.

What could be more feckless than an effort to outlaw war? Kellogg-Briand, also known as the Paris Peace Pact, rested on sheer assertion. George Kennan, the preeminent historian and analyst of U.S. foreign policy in the 20th century, called it “childish, just childish.” Kellogg-Briand became Exhibit A in the realist case against excessive idealism. A mere declaration—no matter how high minded or well intended—could not possibly hold up under the pressure of power politics.

Yale law professors Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro turn this case upside down. They argue that not only is Kellogg-Briand misunderstood, it is actually the most profound turning point in international relations in the modern era, hence their subtitle How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World. Remaking the world is a tall order, and the obscure moment between the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II seems an unlikely place to take this stand. But The Internationalists does so with gusto, and the results are an achievement to be reckoned with.