Inhabiting Different Worlds: The League of Nations and the Protection of National Minorities, 1920-30

NoIn the wake of the First World War, at a time marked by the rise of national self-determination and government based on majoritarian democracy, national minorities emerged as a controversial socio-political issue and significantsecurity challenge in Europe. Thisessay examines how leading statesmen and League of Nations officialconceptualised and shaped the international minority protection regime in Geneva, which extended primarily to the new states in Central and Eastern Europe. Equally, it addresses how “national minorities” understood their own position in Europe and their relationship to the League. Thecase is made that members of both minority and majority populations (the latter including statesmen and League officialsdid not inhabit the same psychological space in the 1920s, with the result being that the minority question remained a proverbial time bomb ticking at the heart of international relations