United Nations Historical Series – serie

The volume aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the League of Nations (1920-1946) as an international organization with complex transnational communication relations from a perspective of communication researchers. The authors focused on the reconstruction of internal communication processes within the Information Section as well as its strategies of external public communication The complex relationships between organized information practices of the Information Section and the profession and practices of League of Nations' journalism can be understood as a co-evolution of journalism, public relations and press work. By the normative guidelines of the "principle of publicity" and the concept of "open diplomacy" media-mediated public communication, preferably via the press, was defined as an important factor for the legitimization of the organization and politics of the League of Nations.

Edited by Martin Grandjean and Daniel Laqua, this book brings together the work of 17 scholars and highlights the breadth of the League of Nations’ work in the field of intellectual cooperation, detailing a range of transnational connections across a variety of cultural fields. Building a new global order after the First World War required not only political and economic reconstruction, but also the coordination of scientific and cultural relations on an international scale. To this end, the League of Nations established first a committee and then a Paris-based institute dedicated to “intellectual cooperation”. Operative from 1922 and 1926 respectively, these bodies aimed to develop a collaborative dynamic around issues as diverse as professor and student exchanges, scientific cooperation, the discussion of educational means for peace, as well as artistic and literary relations. Attracting some of the era’s most eminent intellectuals, this initiative did not lead to the creation of a “League of Minds”, as some of the architects of the League of Nations had so eagerly hoped, but it played a key role in the development of cultural diplomacy in the interwar period. When citing the publication, please use the following language: Martin Grandjean and Daniel Laqua, eds. Intellectual Cooperation at the League of Nations: Shaping Cultural and Political Relations. Vol. 5. UN Historical Series. Geneva: United Nations, 2025.