The Dilemma of the League of Nations' Mediation: International Intervention and Systemic Limitations after the Mukden Incident (1931-1933)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54691/pk50kk23Keywords:
League of Nations; Mukden Incident; Lytton Commission; Mediation Failure; Collective Security; Sino-Japanese Relations.Abstract
Following the outbreak of the Mukden Incident on September 18th, 1931, the Nationalist Government of China appealed to the League of Nations for dispute resolution. Over the subsequent nineteen months, the League Council led a series of mediation efforts concerning the Sino-Japanese conflict, a process that can be broadly divided into three stages: initial emergency consultations, mid-term deliberation by an enlarged assembly, and a final ruling based on the Lytton Commission report. The entire mediation process was characterized by frequent meetings and voluminous, complex documentation, yet ultimately ended in complete failure with Japan's withdrawal from the League. This paper systematically examines the specific actions and decision-making logic of the League across these three stages, analyzing the structural causes of its mediation failure. It further reflects on the inherent deficiencies of the contemporary international order, the dynamics of great power politics, and the profound historical lessons this episode offers regarding the limitations of collective security mechanisms. The study concludes that the League's ineffectiveness in the wake of the Mukden Incident not only emboldened fascist aggression but also signaled the failure of the post-WWI Wilsonian idealist international order.
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