The Treaty that Outlaws War: Remembering the Kellogg-Briand Pact
Betcha didn’t know this: the United States is a party to a 1928 treaty renouncing war.
The Kellogg-Briand Pact (more correctly known as the Pact of Paris), condemned….”recourse to war for the solution of international controversies. ...The contracting parties agreed that settlement of all conflicts, no matter of what origin or nature, that might arise among them should be sought only by pacific means and that war was to be renounced as an instrument of national policy.” (1) It remains in effect. (2)
Unfortunately, the treaty is largely hortatory. “It soon became clear that there was no way to enforce the pact or sanction those who broke it; it also never fully defined what constituted ‘self-defense,’ so there were many ways around its terms. In the end, the Kellogg-Briand Pact did little to prevent World War II or any of the conflicts that followed. Its legacy remains as a statement of the idealism expressed by advocates for peace in the interwar period. (U.S. Secretary of State) Frank Kellogg earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 1929 for his work on the Peace Pact.” (3)
Fondly do we hope that an ancient prophecy may yet come to pass: “...they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” (4)
Sources:
(1) https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Kellogg-Briand+Treaty
(2) https://www.cfr.org/blog/twe-mailbag-kellogg-briand-pact-still-effect
(3) https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/kellogg
(4) The Bible: Isaiah 2:4
Background:
Text of the treaty: https://english.dipublico.org/1343/general-treaty-for-the-renunciation-of-war-kellogg-briand-pact/
Signatories: https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/249-Kellogg-Briand-Treaty.pdf
https://news.yale.edu/2017/09/12/internationalists-how-radical-plan-outlaw-war-remade-world
https://diplomacy.state.gov/artifact-collection-highlights/the-kellogg-briand-pact/
https://www.britannica.com/event/Kellogg-Briand-Pact
https://worldbeyondwar.org/remember-the-kellogg-briand-pact/
https://mwi.usma.edu/world-banned-war/