Projets citoyens pour une paix durable, en France, en Grande-Bretagne et aux Etats-Unis (1914--1924)

This dissertation centres on non-official writings about international relations and lasting peace, published from the beginning of World War I through the foundation and the reinforcement of the League of Nations (1914--1924). It first examines a collection of more than 200 texts, pamphlets and academic monographs written by French, British, and American citizens, which expressed views on peace, war, and the world order. The dissertation then focuses on two contests launched in the United States in 1923 and in Europe (France, Great Britain, Italy and Germany) in 1924, which attracted close to 40,000 participants. The American and the European Peace Awards respectively aimed at increasing the United States' role in world affairs, and reestablishing security and prosperity in Europe by international cooperation. Finally the dissertation analyses the "American plan" of 1924, written by a non-official committee led by Columbia University professor, James T. Shotwell. Its purpose was to allow the United States to join the Geneva organization while guaranteeing European security prior to any general disarmament. The "American plan" was the only non-official peace plan of the interwar period to become part of an actual League of Nations peace initiative, namely the Geneva Protocol.; This study shows that, although they sometimes disagreed on how to establish a better and thus more peaceful world order, the different peace advocates shared some common views on what needed to be changed in the existing international system in order to start anew. Citizens who decided to write about lasting peace believed that the time for theory was over. In order to support that belief, they relied on the speeches of political leaders who stood in favour of the creation of an international organisation. This two-way influence is crucial in understanding the general impulse towards the foundation of the League of Nations in 1919.; Beyond the conventional labels of "pacifists", "idealists" or "utopians", which are commonly used by opponents to marginalise a discourse generally critical of the mainstream view, this dissertation shows that the citizens who wrote on these topics were neither dreamers nor unaware of the realities of international affairs. By examining in a comparative perspective non-official writings on lasting peace from three different countries, it sheds light on the first major expression of non-state actors aimed at challenging the established order of international relations.