When Mediation Fails: Britain, France, and the Settlement of the Vilnius Conflict, 1920–1922

Abstract

This article examines British involvement in solving the Vilnius dispute in 1920–1923, where Britain was caught between its desire to maintain Allied solidarity with the French and its own foreign policy prescriptions. In the context of the complexities of the relationship between the two Allied Powers that often took a “friend-but-foe” form, tension between the two goals conditioned the ultimate fiasco of British dispute mediation initiatives. Britain's desire to act entirely in accordance with France led the former to renounce many feasible dispute settlement initiatives, including the possibility of forestalling conflict, whilst the lack of similar devotion to Allied solidarity on the French side and the atmosphere of mistrust between the two Allied Powers undermined the British initiatives for which it was prepared to stand.