The Treaty of Versailles as a milestone in the history of arms control diplomacy

Abstract

Diplomatic formulas and approaches developed during the Versailles Conference were later taken into account when the international community was developing international agreements on the limitation, reduction, and prohibition of armaments which define the modern architecture of international security. The article introduces the definition “arms control and disarmament diplomacy” and presents an analysis of the provisions of the Versailles Treaty in regard to disarmament and arms control, in terms of the experience of the Versailles Conference for international affairs specialists, as well as other professionals involved in arms control issues. References to the experience of the Versailles Treaty of 1919 can be found in discussions around the development of the Geneva Protocol of 1925, as well as in relation to the multilateral negotiations of the 1970–1990s, which led to the development of the 1972 Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons, and the 1993 Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Arms control and disarmament diplomacy of the interwar period resulted in the introduction of the concept of general disarmament which later was integrated into the arms control diplomacy of the United Nations. The development and realization of the Versailles Treaty facilitated the maturing of the toolkit and vocabulary of global arms control and disarmament diplomacy and is still a significant part of diplomatic institutional memory. The article demonstrates how the experience of the Versailles Conference is relevant for modern arms control and disarmament diplomacy.