Patricia Clavin. Securing the World Economy: The Reinvention of the League of Nations, 1920–1946.

Abstract

Lecturing on the “moral basis of the League of Nations” in 1923, Robert Cecil—one of the fathers of the League of Nations—praised the manifold “things in which the members of the League have worked together for common objects.” Securing the World Economy sheds light on a crucial dimension of this endeavor, namely economic and financial cooperation. Patricia Clavin has written a pioneering account of the League's Economic and Financial Organization (EFO) and substantially advances our understanding of the League system. Many of the characters in her study are officials and experts who rarely feature in accounts of the interwar years. Yet, as the author points out, “history is made as much by men in suits clutching notebooks as it is by those in bold uniforms carrying weapons” (p. 5). The EFO was a small body, with a staff of around sixty at its peak. These numbers reflected the limited size of the League secretariat more generally—and they contrasted with the scale of the issues addressed by the Geneva institutions. The EFO organized conferences, launched inquiries, published studies, and advised governments. To this end, it collaborated with leading economists of the period and interacted with bankers, politicians, and diplomats. Although imbued with the values of economic liberalism, EFO personnel alleged that the body's “perspective was apolitical” (p. 75) and adopted a discourse of scientific expertise. Yet the organization operated in a context in which economic problems and political upheavals were interwoven. It thus had to perform a balancing act, undertaking the work of an economic think tank while remaining alert to the constraints of international diplomacy. It championed free trade in an age of protectionism and promoted Most-Favored-Nation clauses as a potential solution. During the global economic crisis, it furthered debate on the future of the gold standard. Later on, the EFO considered the needs of agricultural producers and gathered information on living standards and the problem of malnutrition. Finally, during the war years, it advanced plans for economic reconstruction, as exemplified in its report The Transition from War to Peace Economy (1943).