Wars and conflicts were prevalent in the international system before the establishment of international institutions and governments. These organisations were created to provide rationality and bring peace to the world. One of the most catastrophic tragedies in history shook the international system. As Held 1 pointed out, the First World War portrayed a number of issues in the international system that no one country could resolve on its own.
The alleviation of the consequences of wars required cooperation between nations. Thus, the atrocities of World War I (1914–18) became the seed for the formation of The League of Nations. The League of Nations, established during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, was the first organisation of sovereign states intended to be global and committed to the resolution of conflicts and the avoidance of war. The League of Nations was discredited because it was unable to employ the lessons of World War I to avert future wars and conflicts, including the Second World War, which resulted in immense losses among both military personnel and civilians. Nevertheless, the League’s inability to avert the Second World War did not quash the idea of the need of a worldwide organisation. Instead, it fostered a will to improve upon previous global institutions in an effort to keep the peace in the future. This paper will look at how these two international groups stack up against one another.
