The corruption of international society? General and complete disarmament from the perspective of the practitioners

Abstract

This article investigates whether practitioners argued that general and complete disarmament (GCD) would corrupt international society during the two major debates of this issue in the 20th century, namely in 1927–1928 and 1959. The purpose and value of this analysis is to learn more about the workings of international society. Following Bull and other English School scholars, GCD probably represents the most radical challenge to the traditional conception of international society and its institutions. The only challenge of similar magnitude would appear to be the creation of a universal state or world government, fundamentally removing anarchy from the ‘anarchical society’. The article thus investigates whether those concerns about corruption, raised by scholars, resonate with the expressed public opinion of practitioners – diplomats and statesmen – in the actual deliberation of GCD in international fora: the Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference, 1927–1928, and the United Nations, 1959. The main finding is that the corruption argument does appear in these public deliberations, and in intriguing and complex ways. The article thus offers a novel analysis of how practitioners publicly deal with a supposedly radical challenge to international society.