The League of Nations in times of crisis

The diplomate as an intellectual mediator

Abstract

After the First World War, Brazil claimed a permanent seat on the Security Council of the League of Nations, an organization that sought to build multilateral diplomacy, in order to prevent new world wars. Brazilian diplomacy in the League of Nations was known for its historiography for presenting non-diplomatic decisions. Brazil vetoed Germany's entry into the League, causing international discomfort, as well as demanding a permanent seat as a condition to remain in the organization, withdrawing definitively from the League in 1926. Regarding the reasons behind these decisions, however, there is much to debate. Until then, historiography had pointed out that decisions were made due to the impetuous and uncompromising personality of President Arthur Bernardes. New research, however, shows that there are more complex reasons behind Bernardes' decisions. These reasons are linked to the power relations between the President and his diplomats. In this article, we will analyze these power relations between Arthur Bernardes and his international informants, through the category of intellectual mediators of Ângela de Castro Gomes, to investigate further the decision-making process that led Brazil to leave the League of Nations.