Reflections on the causes and consequences of the lack of international cooperation during the interwar period : Lessons from the past?

Abstract

Insufficient international cooperation is usually believed to have disturbed the evolution of the world economy during the interwar period and helped to transform the Roaring Twenties into the Great Depression. The main sections of this paper are devoted to a discussion of the interrelationship between international cooperation, war debts and reparations, international conflicts and political regimes during the interwar period, seeking to develop some hypotheses as to why international cooperation displayed such an irregular performance in that period. Such an evolution should provide us with some warnings about the various dangers that the world in general, and Europe in particular, face today. These are discussed in the conclusion to this paper.