A League of Their Own: Introducing the League of Nations Council Resolution Dataset

The League of Nations was arguably the first attempt to create a global rules-based international order. Its challenges and eventual failure bear many parallels to what is discussed today in the context of a ‘crisis of the Liberal International Order,’ including cumbersome institutions, a lack of enforcement mechanisms, and an inability to manage power transitions. Given its extensive archival material, the League offers a compelling window into the rise and fall of a system of world order. This paper introduces a novel dataset covering all resolutions adopted by the League’s Council between 1920 and 1946. As the League’s executive body, the Council played a central role in managing peace and security by resolving disputes between states and shaping international norms. The dataset includes the full texts of all resolutions as well as metadata on meetings and participants. Using text-as-data methods, we explore how the Council's thematic focus shifted over time, mapping the evolution of its agenda in response to international developments. Additionally, we investigate how the Council attributed responsibility in its resolutions by identifying patterns of blame attribution and norm enforcement. The dataset’s structured format allows direct comparisons with the UN Security Council, enabling comparative historical research on international order.