Założenia i próby udoskonalenia systemu bezpieczeństwa zbiorowego w latach 1919-1935

Abstract

The specific character of the system of public safety which had been introduced by the League of Nations Convenant consisted in the fact that, unlike some previous warrants of public safety, it aimed at the universal security and postulated the combined actions of all the countries belonging to the organization in question in defence of a victim of invasion even in the case when the invader was a member of the organization. Such an attitude towards the question of public safety was a new phenomenon in international law and remained a permanent legal achievement irrespective of the extent to which these rules were respected. The original enthusiastic attitude towards these principles, expressed especially by public opinion as well as the representatives of small countries, was followed by the feelings of disappointment as soon as it became evident that not all the members of the League were ready to respect them as a basis of the maintaining of established status quo. The differences in the politics of big European powers, revisionist aspirations of defeated countries, the presence of the United States in the League of Nations – such were principal reasons which determined the weakness of both the League and the system of public safety connected with it. The constant discreditation of the principles of the system by radical pacifist organizations which were afraid that the realization of the theory of collective defence with the aid of military sanctions would lead to the proliferation of wars played also not a small part in this phenomenon. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the conquest of Ethiopia, the Anschluss of Austria proved that the belief into the moral power of law bad to give way to force. Public safety became an ideal to which nations were to aspire in the future.