Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points

Methodology of International Relations “Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points

It is proposed that in future every treaty be part of the public law of the world and that every nation assume a certain obligation in regard to its enforcement. Nations cannot assume obligations in matters of which they are ignorant; and therefore any secret treaty tends to undermine the solidity of the whole structure of international covenants which it is proposed to erect. 2. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants.

It refers to navigation under the three following conditions:

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1. general peace;
2. a general war, entered into by the League of Nations for the purpose of enforcing international covenants;
3. limited war, involving no breach of international covenants. Simply said, it is meant free navigation of all seas.

The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.

The proposal means the destruction of all special commercial agreements, each putting the trade of every other nation in the League on the same basis, the most-favored-nation clause applying automatically to all members of the League of Nation. This is now what we known as free trade in which all economic barriers between countries will end. 4. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest points consistent with domestic safety. "Domestic safety" clearly implies not only internal policing, but the protection of territory against invasion and the reduction of weapon numbers.

A free, open-minded and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty, the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined. The German colonies and any other colonies which may come under international consideration as a result of the war. The stipulation is that in the case of the German colonies the title is to be determined after the conclusion of the war by "impartial adjustment" based on certain principles.

Russia

The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national policy and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire.

The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their goodwill, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy. The problem of these nationalities is complicated by two facts:

1. that they have conflicting claims;
2. that the evacuation called for in the proposal may be followed by Bolshevist revolutions in all of them.

Therefore the evacuating of the territory, if it resulted in class war, would very probably also take the form of a conflict of nationalities.

It is clearly to the interests of a good settlement that the real nation in each territory should be consulted rather than the ruling and possessing class.

Belgium

Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with one another.

Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of international law is forever impaired. The only problem raised here is in the word "restored. " The restoration is to be in kind or how the amount of the indemnity is to be determined is a matter of detail, not of principle. Among the consequences may be put the war debt of Belgium. The recognition of this principle would constitute "the healing act" of which the President speaks. In short, Belgium should be independent as it was before the war.

All French territory

All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted in order that peace may once more be made secure in the interest of all. As the world stood in 1914, war between France and Germany was not in itself a violation of international law, and great insistence should be put upon keeping the Belgian case distinct and symbolic. The status of Alsace-Lorraine was settled by the official statement.

The best solution would seem to be a free choice by the [people of] Luxembourg themselves. 9. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality. A conflict with Greece appears through the Greek claim to northern Epirus, or what is now southern Albania. This would bring Greece closer to Valona than Italy desires. A second conflict with Greece occurs over the Aegean Islands of the Dodecanese, but it is understood that a solution favorable to Greece is being worked out.

Austria-Hungary

The people of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous development. The United States is clearly committed to the program of national unity and independence. It must stipulate, however, for the protection of national minorities, for freedom of access to the Adriatic and the Black Sea, and it supports a program aiming at a confederation of Southeastern Europe.

Rumania

Rumania, [Serbia], and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one another determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of the political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be entered into. This proposal is also altered by events. Serbia and Rumania wil have 11 or 12 inhabitants and will be far greater and stronger than Bulgaria.

The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman Empire

Balkan states should be allowed for self-determination and guarantees of independence. The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development; and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees. A general code of guarantees binding upon all mandataries in Asia Minor should be written into the Treaty of Peace.

This should contain provisions for minorities and the "open door. " The trunk railroad lines should be internationalized. 13. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenants. The principle on which frontiers will be [delimited] is contained in the President's word "indisputably. This may imply the taking of an impartial census before frontiers are marked. The chief problem is whether Poland is to obtain territory west of the Vistula, which would cut off the Germans of East Prussia from the empire, or whether Danzig can be made a free port and the Vistula internationalized. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small [states] alike.

The principle of a League of Nations as the primary essential of a permanent peace is the foundation of the whole diplomatic structure of a permanent peace in order to guarantee the political and territorial independence of all states. Wilson’s Fourteen Points were well received by the public either home or abroad, but many foreign leaders, such as David Llyoid George, Georges Clemenceau, and Vittorio Orlando were very skeptical about it[1]. Those who were skeptical doubted whether it could be effectively applied to the real world.

Clearly, from his Fourteen Points alone, in which he issued as a basis for peace on January 1918, Woodrow Wilson was an idealist. Instead of his famous Fourteen Points, the League of Nations and the World War I Peace Treaty were the products of his idealism. Wilson’s idealism, however, was not merely an idealism. It was more to crusading idealism, where his idealistic nature was apparent through his beliefs as a Christian[2]. His idealistic vision, especially Fourteen Points, had motivated the world with the core lists of what we have widely known now as self-determintation of peoples, free trade, disarmament, open diplomacy.

Wilson’s thoughts have been enlighted the world in long term, and for most of it, Wilson did not present a way to achieve his goals[3]. So, he basically just lead people through the door he created, but people themselves had to figure out the rest of their own. Wilson, like most of the idealists, is characterized by thinking and planning based upon the ideas that are fit for a perfect world, or at least how a world should be perfect in an imperfect world.

Conclusion

The only thing with most of idealists, in this case Wilson, was that he got the right and brilliant ideas, but no body’s in his era got his forward-thinking as he was in different state of mind and vision. It is clear that Woodrow Wilson has imprinted a lasting legacy to the world that we now know. His idealism has brought the world into such a dramatic make over in a better and positive way. Though some of his ideas seemed to be failed, like League of Nations for example, but he gave the world of what we call as the very first ideas and inspirations.

People learned from his mistakes and made some kind of innovation that was based upon his failures, like the United Nations which was based on the failed League of Nations. So, in conclusion, Woodrow Wilson is one of well-known idealists and the most influential as well. For the world that we now live in and enjoy, it would not be as it is now (with free trade, the United Nations, and the other legacies) if it weren’t because of him.

Bibliography

1. "Woodrow Wilson-The Idealist Essay." Free Essay Must Be Free! TM. Retrieved September 26, 2012, from http://essaymania.com/110139/woodrow-wilson-the-idealist.
2. Hickman, Kennedy. "World War I: The Fourteen Points." About.com Military History. Retrieved September 26, 2012, from http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/worldwari/p/World-War-I-The-Fourteen-Points.htm.
3. "Paper Analysis: Realist vs. Idealist." Essay001.blogspot.com. Retrieved September 26, 2012, from http://essay001.blogspot.com/2007/11/realism-vs-idealism.html.
4. [1] Hickman, Kennedy. "World War I: The Fourteen Points." Retrieved on September 26, 2012, from http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/worldwari/p/World-War-I-The-Fourteen-Points.htm.
5. [2] Essay Mania.com. "Woodrow Wilson-The Idealist Essay." Retrieved on September 26, 2012, from http://essaymania.com/110139/woodrow-wilson-the-idealist.
6. [3] Essay001.blogspot.com. "Paper Analysis: Realist vs. Idealist." Retrieved on September 26, 2012, from http://essay001.blogspot.com/2007/11/realism-vs-idealism.html.

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