The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan To Outlaw War Remade the World

The 1928 Paris Peace Pact has been discredited by historians and heads of state because it failed to prevent the rise of Nazism during the 1930s and World War II that followed. Hathaway (international law, Yale Law Sch.; coauthor, Foundations of International Law) and Shapiro (law and philosophy, Yale Law Sch.; Legality) convincingly challenge this interpretation in their significant revisionist investigation, which concludes that war was successfully outlawed with the establishment of the UN in 1945. This lucid account, which occasionally lapses into legalese, offers fascinating background on the lesser-known academics and diplomats who carved out the framework for the post-World War II new world order that made wars of conquest illegal. Included is a chilling overview of the rise of the Third Reich and Carl Schmitt, its malevolent legal apologist. Although "outcasting" (settling disputes through treaties) now governs diplomacy, the authors warn that the rise of the Islamic State and Russia's invasion of Crimea could lead to a resurgence of the Old World Order and its promotion of war as a first resort.