Following discussions of America’s secretary of
state with his France’s counterpart, the minister of foreign affairs, the
president instructed the Secretary (Mr. Kellog Briand) to draft a binding
agreement for the nations of the world. Kellog’s draft had two principle articles.
Article one proposed that the signatories highly condemn the option of war in
the bid to resolve international disputes. In effect, the agreement was
tailored towards avoiding another world war as the nations of the world had
been adversely affected by it whether directly or indirectly. Article two proposed that the signatories that
were faced with any manner of conflict with another country will only use
pacific means to resolve their differences (Ferrell, 1952).
Results of the treaty
The
1928 proposal was targeting the civilized nations urging them to take heed to
their conscience. It set precedence for
a new wave of international law that is meaningful, helpful and full of fresh
ideas for world relations. For instance, the Kellog-Braind pact influenced the
creation of the “General Act for the Pacific Settlement of International”
(Ferrell, 1952).in Geneva which was also aimed at the peaceful resolution of
international conflict. The best way to gauge the impact the proposal ha had is
in noting the good number of signatories that it has attracted over time. There are at least thirty one signatory
nations to the treaty at present. These thirty one nations have deposited in
Washington the instruments that guarantee their allegiance to the contents of
the treaty.
The
enthusiastic support of the pact by many nations unfortunately didn’t translate
into the desired international world order. Beginning with the initial fifteen
signatories and eventual growth of the number to almost every country, the proposal
left the member countries with a board room approach to resolving conflict. However,
it is worth noting that the effects were not realized immediately.
Analysts
believe that the reason for this is that the main reason for this is the fact
that the treaty had no enforcement mechanisms imbibed in it. It was originally
thought to be just but a pious yet toothless watch dog. Maybe that is one of
the reasons that the treaty didn’t helping in averting the looming war that
eventually broke out in the 1940s (Ferrell, 1952).But there were some notable
good results of the pact. For instance, the pact helped in resolving the
USSR-China conflict (Jacobson, 1994). The two nations were in contention as to
who should possess Eastern Chinese territory. This was a potentially catastrophic conflict
that would have led to war.
Conclusion
At
the time of signing the agreement, it was widely thought that the pact would
result in noticeable long term effects in the social and political environment
of the nations of the world. Global peace would at last be realized with the
nations reaching amicable solutions using the guidelines that Braind pact had
set. Perhaps this explains why Kellogg received the noble peace prize award in
1929. But when the Second World War broke out in the mid 1940s, it was quickly
realized that the pact was not a lasting solution to the outlawing of war.
References
Ferrell, H. (1952). Peace in Their
Time: The Origins of the Kellogg-Brian Pact. New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press.
Jacobson, J. (1994). When the
Soviet Union Entered World Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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