In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

130 ARRAYS
Nations, Briand and Stresemann meet for a lunch conversation at a small
hotel in the French village of Thoiry, near the border with Switzerland.
The postcards and the countless newspaper illustrations that commemorate
their encounter follow the well-established pattern of showing deputies
to the League of Nations united around a table. To see the representatives
of former rival nations sitting together at a table for a long
discussion without translators or any other witnesses seems to fulfill the
dream of an international politics that will resemble the private relations
of a family--even if the special menu for Briand and Stresemann's meeting
obeys the non private rules of the international diplomatic stage:
"Selection of hors-d'oeuvres / Foie gras aspic / Trout au bleu / Chicken
Henri IV / Duck with truffles and port / Peas fermiere / Roast partridge
canape / Cheese plate / Fruit basket / Iced Vacherin" (Annees-memoire,
70). Less than three months later, on December 10, Gustav Stresemann
and Aristide Briand jointly receive the Nobel peace prize. But despite
such public recognition, Germany's integration into the League of Nations
has probably impaired, rather than fostered, the reputation of this
institution. While supporters of the League still hope that it will lead
humankind to a future of supranational harmony, they begin to acknowledge
that, so far, it has been more bureaucratically complicated
than politically efficient: "One cannot underestimate the importance of
the League of Nations. But it would not be difficult to show that the
edicts of this highly respected assembly have existed much more on paper
than in political reality. The League has been unsuccessful in extinguishing
the fires of political crisis that have erupted all over the globe"
(8 Uhr-Abendblatt, March 15). This incapacity of countries to negotiate
a stable consensus and find collectively binding solutions to international
problems has by now become almost proverbial-so much so, that a
journalist can use it as a metaphor when chastising boxing champion
Jack Dempsey for avoiding matches with his multiple challengers [see
Boxing]: "It is harder to make a match with Mr. Dempsey than to ratify
a treaty between nations" (Dempsey and Dempsey, 180).
Related Entries
Boxing, Individuality vs. Collectivity, Present vs. Past, Action = Impotence
(Tragedy), Center = Periphery (Infinitude), Individuality = Collectivity
(Leader)