Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Agreement of 1928 (sometimes referred to as the Pact of Paris) initiated by France and the USA which renounced war “as an instrument of national policy.” Despite the new spirit of reconciliation inspired by locarno , the French foreign minister briand remained anxious to enlist additional international security against Germany. He thus proposed to Frank Kellogg, the US secretary of state, a treaty that repudiated war between their two nations. Washington was initially unenthusiastic, but, conscious of domestic antiwar sentiment, suggested a multilateral pact renouncing war except in circumstances of self-defense. This was signed by 15 states (including Germany) in Paris on August 27, 1928. Eventually some sixty countries in and beyond Europe subscribed to it. In doing so, they committed themselves to very little, since the pact neither stipulated mechanisms of enforcement nor even defined “aggression.” It was never more than a symbolic gesture, and did nothing to weaken the belligerent ambitions of hitler and others. ... log in or subscribe to read full text