The League of Nations again

[ffutures]

OK - here's a brief precis of the role of the League of nations, based on some of jordan179's ideas. Sorry to cut it so brutally, but I think a certain amount of vagueness is needed, and this is about all of the space I can spare for it...

The League of Nations

The League, with headquarters in Geneva, is the main forum for resolving disputes between its member states. With the exception of China all of the main power blocs send representatives to the League and for the most part obey its directives and decisions. It’s generally assumed that if any of Earth’s colonies become independent they will also join the League.

As originally constituted the League was virtually toothless, and would have been unable to do anything really effective to defend the peace, but in 1935 Italy invaded Ethiopia, and Britain (perceiving the invasion as a threat to its African colonies) blockaded Italian Somaliland, claiming to be acting in defence of League principles. While this was barely justifiable, it set a precedent which led to the defeat of the German occupation of the Rhineland in 1936; Britain blockaded Germany while France sent a division into the Rhineland and drove out the Germans. Recognizing that this was likely to set the pattern for future wars, the League treaties were amended to legitimize future interventions.

Eventual results included the slow declines of Fascist and Communist dictatorships in the forties and fifties, with every move to expand their territories blocked before it could really begin. Gradually the League expanded its membership and mandate, opposing militarism and promoting civil liberties, and was one of the principal factors in forming the world as we know it today.

The League controls Earth’s space fleet, which currently consists of eight ships provided by various countries. It is used mainly for piracy suppression and rescue operations in the vicinity of the Earth, but patrols occasionally take in Venus, Mars, and the outer worlds.

Comments

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That was fast - I can't have taken more than a minute between posting (the time is way out since I took forever writing the post) and fixing it, and you commented in that time!

[timill]

Just lucky - I've deleted it since it was no longer relevant, so you were quick as well.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

WARNING: you're aware that jordan179 is a flaming right-wing American crank, right?

(Not saying not to use it: just apply your bogo-filter with extreme prejudice.)

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

(*Breathes right-wing flame from his crank. Charles does not save and takes 40 HP damage*)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Actually, regardless of crankiness I think it's moderately plausible as chrome for the setting - a slightly more effective League has to evolve pretty fast, if it's still going to be around circa 2115, and this looks a feasible starting point.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

This is a common problem in making histories for stories written in the 1930's ("Before the Golden Age" as Asimov put it), because either the League is going to hold, be replaced quickly by something better, or disintegrate in World War II. A lot of SF from that period believed World War II improbable, and hence tended to assume an essentially peaceful world order through at least the rest of the 20th century, modeled after the Interwar Era with which the writers were familiar.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I really liked the points you added about the amendation of the League treaties. I had kind of assumed that this happened at some point but was very vague about it -- it would of course be necessary to turn the League into an effective diplomatic entity.

I wonder when America finally joins the League? Maybe it happens in 1949, via a sort of crosstime resonance with when we started NATO? America in the ATL probably avoided war with Japan, and hence remains much more isolationist than she did in OTL.

(*insert "flaming right-wing crank" rant about America being the bestest place on Earth or indeed the whole Solar System due to its mystic American-ness*).

There's a general air of peacefulness about the Weinbaum-verse, which implies that by the 21st century wars became purely an affair of Third World states and native rebellions. In particular, there aren't a lot of advanced militarily-effective weapons: even the really-cool flame pistol is a short-ranged, one-shot weapon that seems more for wilderness ground clearance than for a real battlefield.

IMO that world is fortunate for this.