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American membership of the League of Nations: US philanthropy and the transformation of an intergovernmental organisation into a think tank

International Politics volume 55, pages 852–869 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

This article deals with the participation of the Rockefeller Foundation in the technical activities of the League of Nations. It demonstrates that American philanthropy has played a central role in the development of non-political activities, not only financially (through its massive contribution), but also intellectually (as regards the conception of the programmes it supported) and technically (as regards their implementation on the spot). In so doing, the Rockefeller Foundation contributed to turning its technical sections into international sites of contact between experts and thus to changing the League’s original purpose, centred on political activities, by promoting the rise in power of technical activities, which became central within the League system from the beginning of the 1930s. American philanthropy thus played a central role in the transformation of the League of Nations, from the Parliament of Nations to a think tank focused on expertise in international problems.

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Notes

  1. MacMillan (2001), 83.

  2. See Pedersen (2007) and also the site History of the League of Nations <http://www.leagueofnationshistory.org/homepage.shtml>, which lists researchers working on the League of Nations as well as their published and ongoing research.

  3. There is a rich body of historical research on the subject. See Saunier (2013), Iriye and Saunier (2009) and Douki and Minard (2007).

  4. See, for example, Kitching (2003), Webster (2005) and Pedersen (2015).

  5. Decorzant (2011) and above all Clavin (2013).

  6. Borowy (2009).

  7. Renoliet (1999).

  8.  Kévonian (2004).

  9. Schott and Kaiser (2014).

  10. Van Daele et al. (2010) and Kott and Droux (2013).

  11. Tournès (2015).

  12. For an overview of this project, see Tournès (2011a), chapter 2.

  13. Drummond to Fosdick, 22 November 1919, Raymond Fosdick Papers, Princeton University, 1/2.

  14. Deibel (1972), 46.

  15. Ranshofen-Wertheimer (1945), 223.

  16. For the detail of the calculations, see Tournès (2015), 120–126.

  17. SDN. Répartition des dépenses pour le septième exercice (1925), Mémoire du Secrétaire général, Genève, 1925.

  18. Prentiss Gilbert (American Consul in Geneva) to Cordell Hull (Secretary of State), 29 January 1935, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md., RG 84/452.

  19. Budget pour 1924, League of Nations Archives (hereafter LoN) 12B/R866/26652/26652.

  20. Blayac (1932), L’Organisation d’hygiène de la Société des Nations. Thèse pour le doctorat en médecine, Université de Toulouse, 37.

  21. Rose (Rockefeller Foundation) to Rajchman, 21 July 1922, SDN 12B/R839/26117/21836.

  22. Gunn to Russell, 24 August 1926, Rockefeller Foundation archives (hereafter RF), Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, 1.1/100/20/170.

  23. Journal of the American Statistical Association (1924) The League of Nations Health Service. 19(146): 243–236.

  24. Otto Eichel. League of Nations Search Engine, http://www.lonsea.de/pub/person/5461, accessed 5 April 2014.

  25. Rockefeller Foundation (1926) Annual Report, 249.

  26. Tournès (2011b).

  27. David H. Stevens, Notes on the Library of the League of Nations, 1 July 1937, RF 1.1/100/90/833.

  28. Van Sickle to Loveday, 3 May 1933, SDN 10B/R4520/4072/4072.

  29. Day to Gunn, 18 January 1932, RF 1.1/100/18/148.

  30. Day to Fosdick, 8 December 1933, RF 2-1933/100/78/623.

  31. Endres and Fleming (2002), 30.

  32. Haberler (1936) Prosperity and Depression. A Theoretical Analysis of Cyclical Movements. Geneva, League of Nations.

  33. Rapport d’activité pour la période 1938–1939, SDN 10B/R4520/4072/4072.

  34. John Van Sickle diary, 4–8 October 1935, RF 1.1/100/18/149.

  35. Alexander Loveday, Note on work done under Rockefeller grants, 25 September 1937, RF 1.1/100/18/150.

  36. SDN. Service d’études économiques. Vérification statistique des cycles économiques. 1. Une méthode et son application au mouvement des investissements, par Jan Tinbergen, Genève, 1939, pp. 163–175.

  37. Tinbergen J., Statistical Testing of Business Cycles Theories: I. A Method and its Applications to Investment Activity, February 1939; II. Business Cycles in the United States of America, 1919–1932, August 1939.

  38. Van Sickle to Kittredge, 4 December 1936, SDN 10B/R4548/27741/27741.

  39. Rosenborg to Loveday, 22 December 1936, SDN 10B/R4548/27741/27741.

  40. Letter of 25 August 1937, SDN 10B/R4548/27741/27741.

  41. Kittredge to Loveday, 19 May 1938, SDN 10B/R4548/27741/27741.

  42. Vanoli (2002), 37 sq and 173–175.

  43. Tournès (2007).

  44. Clavin (2013), 103–104 and 126–128.

  45. On the history of the ISC, see Riemens (2011) and Tournès (2015, ch 8).

  46. League of Nations. International studies conference, Collective Security. A Record of the Seventh and the Eighth International Studies Conferences, Paris 1934–London 1935, edited by Maurice Bourquin, Paris, 1936, p. ix; see also L’Europe Nouvelle, 4 June 1932.

  47. Note du service des relations internationales et des sciences sociales relative à la subvention Rockefeller 1935–1937, UNESCO-IICI A/II/28; Conférence permanente des hautes études internationales. Dixième réunion du Comité exécutif, Paris, 15 January 1938. Annexe B: subvention de la fondation Rockefeller, UNESCO-IICI K/XI/1/23; Kittredge to Bonnet, 21 April 1939, UNESCO-IICI A/II/28.

  48. Renoliet (1999), 316.

  49. Kittredge to Walker, 28 October 1937; memorandum by Kittredge, 28 September 1938, RF 1.1/100/105/955; Kittredge to Walker, 28 October 1937, RF 1.1/100/105/955; Bonnet to Condliffe, 7 July 1937, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace-European Center (hereafter CEIP-CE), Columbia University, I/33/2.

  50. Condliffe to Bonnet, 26 January 1938, CEIP-CE I/34/3.

  51. See the complete list of participants and the memoranda in Condliffe J. B. (1940), The Reconstruction of World Trade. A Survey of International Economic Relations. New York: W.W. Norton, 395–405.

  52. International studies conference. Twelfth Session. Economic Policies in Relation to World Peace, A Record of the Study Meeting held in Bergen from August 26th to 29th 1939, Paris, 1940. And above all Condliffe (1940), op. cit.

  53. Condliffe (1938) Markets and the Problem of Peaceful Change. Paris: International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, 11.

  54. International studies conference. International Monetary Organization, by M. A. Heilperin, Paris, 1939, p. 56. See also Condliffe, Reconstruction, op. cit., pp. 355 sq.

  55. On this episode, see Clavin (2013, chapters 8 and 9), Tournès (2014, 2015, chapter 9) and Ekbladh (2015).

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  1. Department of History, Global Studies Institute, University of Geneva, Rue Saint-Ours 5, 1211, Geneva 4, Switzerland

    Ludovic Tournès

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  1. Ludovic Tournès
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Tournès, L. American membership of the League of Nations: US philanthropy and the transformation of an intergovernmental organisation into a think tank. Int Polit 55, 852–869 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-017-0110-4

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Keywords

  • League of Nations
  • USA
  • Rockefeller Foundation
  • Expertise
  • Think tank