The Admission of Ethiopia to the League of Nations. Revisiting the Interpretation of the English School

Abstract

International Relations Theory has relied in a fundamental manner on the work of historians. Nevertheless, this has facilitated avoiding direct critical confrontation of historical sources, using history as a storehouse of data . Although the English School has been particularly sensitive to the historical dimension of international relations, it has tended to use History to sustain its theoretical perspective. This proposal merges historical and theoretical research to confront the Eurocentric interpretation of the historical transformation of international society by the English School through the analysis of a specific process of the 1920s, such as the entrance of Ethiopia into the League of Nations and the later impact of the Ethio-Italian conflict on the organization. The interpretation of the English School assumes that Ethiopia, through its access to the League of Nations in 1923, validated the core principles of the international society, articulated through the so called standard of civilization . (Gong 1984) However, such an interpretation neglects the implications for the international society of admitting a black African state in the League of Nations. The admission of Ethiopia had profound implication for the international society not in the sense of validating civilization but of questioning the subjugation that accompanied it.