The Problem of International Order at the Versailles Conference and After

The 200-year history of conference diplomacy tends to be narrated as a sequence of highlights and lowlights, arrayed along a U-shaped rollercoaster. At one end we have the aristocratic sophistication of the Congress of Vienna. At the other end we have the density and technical complexity of modern conference diplomacy. In between there is the nadir of Versailles. Along this trajectory it is commonplace to draw unfavorable contrasts, for instance, between the chivalry of Vienna, manifested in the seamless reincorporation of Bourbon France, and the vindictive humiliation dealt out to Weimar Germany at Versailles. At the other end of the trajectory, the inconsistency of Wilsonian strategy in 1919 is contrasted with the determined hegemonic leadership of the US after 1945 and the moves it enabled towards European reconciliation and integration.