Intellectual Cooperation at the League of Nations : Shaping Cultural and Political Relations

Exploring post-World War I intellectual networks, this study illustrates how the League of Nations coordinated scientific, artistic, educational, and literary exchanges to unite thought leaders. Its initiatives sowed international cultural diplomacy and political cooperation.

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.