Scandinavians and the League of Nations Secretariat, 1919–1946

Abstract

This article reintroduces the Scandinavian perspective on interwar internationalism by mapping and analysing the Scandinavian staff in the League Secretariat. Combining quantitative and qualitative sources, the article explores how the Scandinavian members of staff were viewed by and situated in the institutional topography of the League Secretariat; how they were related to and positioned towards the national foreign policy establishment; and what the postwar trajectories of the Scandinavian League staff looked like. With these perspectives, the article offers three key insights: First, the interplay between the League Secretariat and the foreign policy strategies pursued by the Scandinavians, was highly productive, and the international issues that different Scandinavian countries engaged with through the League staff was substantially determined by the institutional setup of the League. Second, we note clear differences in terms of strategy and commitment between the three countries' Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs). Third, the careers of the Scandinavians working in the Secretariat show a clear continuity of Scandinavian internationalism across the Second World War. The experience, prestige and networks gained from working in the League Secretariat often translated into key positions in postwar IOs or within the new multilateral parts of the MFAs.

Medical Support Provided by the UN’s Scandinavian Allies during the Korean War

“…In fact, an analysis of the activities of Scandinavian state officials dispatched to the Secretariat of the League of Nations shows that they coordinated different opinions in areas where the interests of the great powers competed, for example, in departments dealing with ethnic minorities, trusteeship, and disarmament issues. Although the detailed diplomatic strategies of each country were slightly different, the Scandinavian countries’ attitudes toward international politics did not change significantly until the end of World War II and the outbreak of the Korean War ( Gram-Skjoldager, et al, 2019 ).…”

Diplomaten som helt: Fridtjof Nansen

“…Da gjeninntrådte han i tjenesten som norsk sendemann. En annen diplomat, Rasmus Skylstad, fikk fra 1938 av tjenestefrihet fra sin stilling som byråsjef for Folkeforbundskontoret i UD for å ta stillingen som direktør for minoritetsavdelingen ved Folkeforbundets secretariat (Gram-Skjoldager et al, 2019). Her ligger begynnelsen på et mønster som skulle slå inn med full tyngde da det multilaterale diplomatiet eksploderte etter annen verdenskrig.…”

Introduction

“…Their Latin American and Asian counterparts, however, supposedly lacked these qualities and were therefore in a sense considered not to be 'true' small states. 19 Small state studies After another world war, the post-1918 enthusiasm for small state internationalism came to seem short-lived and, in retrospect, even painfully naïve. The doyen of the study of international relations, E. H. Carr, for example, echoed Treitschke in the second edition of his The Twenty Years' Crisis, published a year after the end of the Second World War: '[t]he conclusion now seems to impose itself on any unbiased observer that the small independent nation-state is obsolete or obsolescent' .…”