Plowshares into Swords

An in-depth look at how the ideas formulated by the interwar League of Nations shaped American thinking on the modern global order.

In Plowshares into Swords, David Ekbladh recaptures the power of knowledge and information developed between World War I and World War II by an international society of institutions and individuals committed to liberal international order and given focus by the League of Nations in Geneva. That information and analysis transformed critical debates in a world in crisis.

In doing so, Ekbladh reframes the conventional understanding of the United States’ postwar hegemony, showing that important elements of it were heavily based on ideas that emerged from these debates. The League’s work was part of a larger transnational movement that included the United States and which saw the emergence of concepts like national income, gross domestic product, and other attempts to define and improve the standards of living, as well as new approaches to old questions about the role of government. Forged as tools for peace, these ideas were beaten into weapons as World War II threatened.

Ekbladh recounts how, though the US had never been a member of the organization, vital parts of the League were rescued after the fall of France in 1940 and given asylum at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where its economic analyses and example were integral to an Allied “war of ideas,” in addition to plans for a postwar world and even blueprints for parts of a new United Nations.

How did this body of information become so valuable? As Ekbladh makes clear, the answer is that information and analysis themselves became crucial currencies in global affairs. In order to sustain a modern, liberal global order, a steady stream of information about economics, politics, and society was, and remains, indispensable.