PRESIDENT WILSON’S “FOURTEEN POINTS” AND SELF- DETERMINATION

A summary of Wilson’s “Fourteen points”:

1. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at international diplomacy to be carried on publicity
2. Absolute freedom of navigation on the seas
3. The removal of all economic barriers
4. Disarmament undertaken and guaranteed by states to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.
5. A free, open minded and impartial adjustment of all colonial claims.
6. The evacuation of all Russian territory and settlement of questions affecting Russia
7. Belgium must be evacuated an restored
8. French territory to be evacuated and restored and Alsace-Lorraine to be returned to French rule.
9. Italian frontiers to be adjusted a long clearly recognizable line of nationality.
10. The peoples of Austria-Hungary to be given the opportunity for autonoms development.
11. Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro to be evacuated. Serbia to be given access to the sea and international guarantees of the independence and territorial integrity of the Balkan state to be made.
12. The Turkish portions of the ottoman empire to be assured a secure sovereignty
13. An independent Polish state to be established
14. A general association of nations to be formed to afford mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to all states.

Wilson believed that the avoidance of war could be furthered by creating an international organization, based on the principle of ‘collective security’. His scheme for a League of Nations was premised on the ‘peace-loving’ member states regarding any threat to the international peace as an act of aggression which ultimately threatened them all.

Wilson was an opponent of imperialism and believed passionately in the right of distinct national groups to govern themselves by being accorded sovereignty over their own territory. However, in practice, the nationalities of those parts of Europe where empire had recently crumbled – especially the Balkans and the central and Eastern Europe – were not neatly parceled into distinct territorial areas. The peacemaker therefore faced a difficult task of drawing the boundaries of the new states of Europe, some of which had never existed before. The new states in Southern, Eastern, and Central Europe not only had to contend with ethnic cleavages but also with weak economies and fledging political institutions.

REFERENCES:

            The Globalization of World Politics 2^nd ed: an introduction to international relations, edited by John Baylis and Steve Smith

            Sagan, Scoot D. 1914. Revisited: Allies, Offense, and Instability (1986)

            Van Euera, Stephen. The Gulf of the Offensive and the Origin of the first WW. Summer 1984 p. 62

            www.greenwood.org