Kellogg–Briand Pact

The 1928 treaty in which signatories renounced war as an instrument of national policy. It established no effective enforcement mechanism.

World War I: A global conflict fought from 1914 to 1918, centered on Europe and involving many world powers. The war’s devastation created urgency for an international renunciation of war.
Pact of Paris: The formal name commonly used for the Kellogg–Briand Pact, signed in Paris in 1928. Its articles set out the signatories’ renunciation and commitment to peaceful settlement.
Japanese invasion of Manchuria: Japan’s 1931 military seizure of Manchuria, a region of northeastern China. The League of Nations’ weak response exposed the limits of interwar restraints on aggression.
League of Nations Covenant: The founding treaty of the League of Nations, which established a system for collective security and dispute settlement. It offered collective procedures that the pact itself did not create.
Customary international law: International law arising from general state practice accepted as legally obligatory. The pact’s influence beyond its text depends partly on how states treated its rule over time.
Interwar period: The period between the end of World War I in 1918 and the beginning of World War II in 1939. The pact emerged amid interwar efforts to prevent another major conflict.
Treaty ratification: The formal approval by a state that makes a treaty binding on it under the relevant procedures. Ratifications brought the pact into force for its participating states.
Italian invasion of Ethiopia: Italy’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, then an independent member of the League of Nations. The pact did not prevent this major act of interstate aggression.
Locarno Treaties: The 1925 agreements that guaranteed borders and established arbitration commitments among European states. They paired peace commitments with specific regional guarantees absent from the pact.
Jus ad bellum: The body of international law governing when states may lawfully resort to force. The pact marked a major attempt to restrict the lawful resort to war.

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