Acta Universitatis Danubius. Relationes Internationales, Vol 7, No 2 (2014)

A Case of Study: México and the International Intellectual Cooperation in the Interwar Period

Professor Alexandra Pita González, PhD

University of Colima, Mexico

alepitag@gmail.com

Abstract: The Debates around the “soft power” have generated the advance of an area of study yet a little unexplored: the cultural history of the international relations. We are to approach the role of the cultural diplomacy as an essential tool to understand the role that culture played at a certain moment and of those who stand in the place of its interpreters, the intellectuals who were participating in a certain way of diplomacy. The case of study which is presented here is a synthesis of a major work which will soon appear as a book, the one that is dedicated to the study of the relations between Mexico and the International organization of intellectual cooperation during a wide period of time which goes between 1922 and 1948. This allows the understanding of the complex net of relations that the Mexican cultural diplomacy had in order to place itself in the international stage without losing sight of the regional conflicts which specially had with its neighbor, The United States of America.

Keywords: First World War; Mexico; cultural diplomacy; intellectuals; cooperation

1. Introduction

1.1. Objectives and Hypotheses

This article is a synthesis of a major size book which is about to be published, whose title is “Educar para la Paz” (“Educating for Peace” in English). Mexico and the International Intellectual Cooperation Organization, 1922-1948.¹ Then, a limited objective is proposed: to raise the general and principal aspects of the other publication with the aim of spreading a topic not greatly studied in the cultural relationships of the international relationships, area which deserves to be explored to give a new dimension to the soft power, and, with it, to widen the debate around the concept of cultural diplomacy.

The objective of the book which is referenced is to study the participation that Mexico had through its intellectuals who were placed in the service of diplomacy in the intellectual cooperation, body dependent of the Society of Nations during a wide period of study, between the first years of postwar in the First World War until the ones corresponding to the Second World War. The plot of this history shows through the analysis of numerous conferences and regional and international congresses, the proposals, debates and actions by the Mexican cultural diplomacy, with the participation of intellectuals such as Alfonso Reyes, Genaro Estrada, Isidro Fabela and Jaime Torres Bodet.

We start from the hypothesis that of the participation of Mexico originated and was maintained due to the interest of the country to defend through an international frame, the fragile situation which was in the region between the Latin American countries and The United States of America, tension of special importance to Mexico. The defense of doctrines which proposed a stop to the North American expansionism from the legal point of view added to the acquired weight as a referee in the regional conflicts, made a positive image for the country from the defense of some international relationships based in the beginning of cooperation and not from the intervention, where it should prime the use of the reason more than the strength.

The integration to an intellectual cooperation allowed Mexico reverse the late inclusion in the Nations League, when it was present in the international scenario as a nation which had reached a certain stability, reversing the image of a rebellious and barbarian Mexico. For this, the participation of men of letters in the service of diplomacy was necessary. Worried for the tensions at the moment and conscious of that historic union they were meant to play an important role as American intellectuals, they showed until which point Latin America and Mexico in particular were in a suitable moment to raise again the marginal position to an international level.

1.2. Background

The end of the First World War brought together among other things, a profound moral crisis. For many of their contemporaries, this was because the cease of fire did not mean the end of war, but just a new declaration of hostilities. The signature of the treaty of Versailles was seen with mistrust because for many this act was the beginning of a period of new hostilities between the European nations, the ones which did not have a place in the battle field but in the international political area. It has been pointed out that one of the factors that influenced it were the strict conditions imposed by the winner potencies to the defeated ones, principally to Germany due to be considered the “only responsible”, these were used in next years of that decade and above all in the next one, as a flag for a marked nationalism that soon was transformed into totalitarian movements.

Because of this, the war was perceived as a watershed which modified a series of images and ideas of what it was and how a civilized world should be, which recognized its frontiers in a narrow European margin and off its ex-colonies. The unhappiness was widely spread and expressed by numerous intellectuals who made a reflection from different postures about how to interpret it. The occidental world in the way they knew it had died, after a war which had horrified their contemporaries and a post war which let doubts about if the human kind would have learnt something from its mistakes. It is bit a coincidence then that in the end of the 1910's was born an International of the Thoughts, pushed fundamentally by a group of intellectuals like Henri Barbusse, Anatole France, Jules Romains, Upton Sinclair, Stefan Zweig, Bertran y Russel, H.G. Wells, who were grouped around the Clarté magazine to claim in favor of a movement of ethic ideals which would gathered cultured men of society to fight against the corrupted governments.

Parallel to this movement, another one with official character appeared, which was inserted into the orbit of action of The League of Nations (LN) this is, the one of the Intellectual Cooperation. As it is known, in 1919 the League or League of Nations was created as the objective of being the way by excellence in the international relations of postwar, with the ambitious objective of using the solution of conflicts through a diplomatic way and negotiation. To accomplish this, they created first an international committee of cooperation in the organization with place in Geneva (IIIC) in 1922, soon after in 1925 the Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC) in Paris and later in 1928 the International Educational Cinematographic Institute (IECI) in Rome.

In these institutions numerous scientists, artists and writers participated, since the 1920's until the middle of 1940's when it ended to give a beginning to the present Organization of the United Nations of Education, the Science and the Culture (UNESCO). In this way, playing the double role of officials in service of diplomacy and promoters of culture, the intellectuals had the possibility of pushing several proposals in this institutional frame: the academic exchange of students, professors and artists the ordering and transmission of the bibliographic material, as well as the material of historic archives, collections of museums and artistic works; the creation of regional collections of literary works to show the richness of the cultural heritage; the origin of summer courses or similar in several countries to reinforce the academic exchanges and the revision if manuals of history, geography and civics texts, to try to teach in them a vision less prejudiced of others. To do this, a great number of congresses, conventions and conferences were necessary, in which the ideas and arrangements were raised with a view to modifying or creating a legislation which would allow the reinforcement of the taken actions, as it was for example the debate about intellectual property. Despite the fact that these actions might be seen in an isolated way, as categories which received major or minor impulse, they also might -and must- be watched in their whole, as an ambitious project which proposed to do a profound change to a mid and long term in the education of the youngest.

1.3. Discussion

Despite the history of the intellectual Cooperation being found in the origins of a series of important practices which we know nowadays as international cooperation and cultural diplomacy the topic has awarded scarce studies. Broadly, it can be said that the publishing on the topic was concentrated while the organization was current in the decades between the 1930's and 1940's, then in the next decades the publishing was done by people who participated in a way or another in the entrepreneurship and that claimed the ideas and reaches obtained, (Lanux, 1950, Kolasa, 1962). Later a great silence followed with respect to the topic, to reappear toward the end of the twentieth century associated to the more positive reinterpretations of the League of Nations (Renoliet, 1999). From this job, it was initiated a truly thematic renovation of study through the specific articles which analyzed the experience from a conciliating experience, where significantly the cultural component despite its intangibility starts to be seen as an intangible element of great value. It is from this point of view that the intellectual cooperation starts to be revalued as an undisputable reference to understand the origin of the UNESCO, as for the lines of continuity as for the changing ones.

In the mid-eighties and to the heat of the end of the bipolar security system, new historic investigations were published from the perspective of a transnational history that recovered current debates as drug trafficking, the refugees, etc., in conventions of the League of Nations. The result of this works allowed a better understanding of the international organization by abandoning the questioning about the failure to go into the meaning of its twenty five years of existence.

However, if we center the attention in the active participation of the Latin American countries in the international intellectual cooperation, the quantity of written work about the topic is radically minor. The works which intend to explain the organization in general and the role which plays in it the Latin American countries are scarce. The Works of Juliette Dumont (2008, 2013) about the cultural diplomacy which developed in the interwar Chile, Argentina and Brazil around the organization of the intellectual cooperation, take as an object of study the cultural dimension of the international relations, by integrating a series of aspects which rescue the multiplicity of the “soft power”. From this point shows through a detailed analysis, in what way the three countries used the project of intellectual cooperation to develop an American cultural diplomacy , based on a fluency net of interchange and in a skillful conscious of the Atlantic triangle which searches for the equilibrium of the relationship with the United States of America and Europe.

In the case of Mexico, the study of the cultural relationships established in the frame of International Intellectual Cooperation have only been awarded two interesting articles by Fabian Herrera León, where talks about the interest which Mexico had in participating in this proposal to achieve a representation in the international educational institute of cinematography, in which the international committee of intellectual cooperation was dependent as a specialized technical body (League of Nations Committee on Intellectual Cooperation), as well as the representation of the Mexican delegation before the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (IICI).In both it is perceived the interest of Mexico in participating, but also tells about the impact it had in international relationships the political and economic fluctuations, the difficulties of bureaucracy in a post-revolutionary Mexico which was debating in many fronts internal and external simultaneously. In synthesis the objective of the author is to let know the characteristics in a better way of this collaboration to qualify the adverse and extended idea, about the lack of support that the post-revolutionary countries offered to the scientific and intellectual activities in the country (Herrera, 2008 and 2009). The study of the participation of Mexico in this institutions deserves only these articles due to the interest of the author is to analyses the wider context in the established relationships between Mexico and the League of Nations, topic which has deserved his attention in other studies (Herrera, 2002 and 2010), and in a more specific way the link established by Mexico through another institute of the international body: Tribunal of the International Labour Organisation (Herrera, 2013).

1.4. Concept and Terms

Due to the importance that it has for this study the participation of the intellectuals in the diplomatic stage, but since the defense of the culture as a tool of change to reinforce the moral projection of the society of Nations, it is important to refer to the cultural dimension of the international relations.

This remits in the first instance the debates about the “soft power”, as Dumont ensures, the new line of investigation denominated Cultural History of the international relations , has had an expansion during the last decades after having suffered years of absence because the enough attention in the previous years in which the Marxism was dominant. In this stage, the attention of the issue of the international insertion to the relationships with the United States, thinking in terms of imperialism and neo colonialism. Because of this, it is just when the debates about the soft power recover the emphasis on the influence of the culture into the international relationships, which have a predominant place as an object of study in the investigations of the international relationships (Dumont, 2008).

This renewal discipline should be understood as a process that starts from the 1930s to worry about international relations provide a cultural dimension. This turn opened up the possibility of thinking about ideas and images that make up the representation of a country abroad, in particular the assessment of public opinion as an active social subject through which can understand the impact of dissemination and exchange of symbolic objects created by a society. This turn opened up the possibility of thinking about ideas and images that make up the representation of a country abroad, in particular the assessment of public opinion as an active social subject through which it can be understood the impact of dissemination and exchange of symbolic objects created by a society (Frank, 1994).

To this debate it is added another discussion within the discipline, which questions the theoretical approach of realism by the predominance granted to the study of diplomatic activities as a strategy associated with military politics. Since the 1960s other interpretations challenged this perspective, aware of the changes that were being made in the international system since the Second World War (Del Arenal, 2007). However, it was not until the early 1990s when Joseph Nye used the term “soft power” to suggest that power should not be considered exclusively in military and economic terms (“high politics”) but also in other types of power (“low politics”), reaching its results not by coercion but by cooptation. This requires that government policies subtly modify the preferences of other nations without the use of military force or economic sanctions but through intangibles such as culture and values. Despite being aware of the criticisms that can be made soft power and considering that this should not exclude the hard power, Nye believes that its positive medium and long-term effects are important for furthering the objectives of a country (Nye, 2004).

Although the debate generated by the work of Nye had a direct impact on the discussion of a national concern that affects the international scene, the concept of “soft power” has indirectly served to invigorate the study of other aspects to it, such as cultural diplomacy. Despite the growing interest in the topic, it leaves open the possibility of further studies to try to respond from different perspectives to the many questions that still exist. We do not intend to raise here the approaches that scholars do about this concept, but only highlight the one hand, it must be understood as an open opposite the confidentiality that requires the traditional diplomacy public chancellery. It requires several tools (advertising, networking, publications, etc., to reach the public in other countries in order to legitimize a particular international policy or acceptance of their ideals, institutions and national values. On the other hand, this type of initiative requires the political control of information, personal contacts and cultural programs undertaken abroad. To do this, the government pays attention to the cultural field and try it serve the “national interest” confused with the term public diplomacy (Pita, unpublished).

In this sense, for the book summarized in this article, it is vital to understand the cultural diplomacy as a key concept that allows us to study the participation of intellectuals in the draft intellectual cooperation. For this it is necessary not to lose sight of that cultural diplomacy refers to the interest of states for creating mechanisms of power through culture, to achieve one or more purposes. In fact, following the idea of Ricardo Salvatore on Informal Empire American built in the period 1890-1945, it is necessary to consider the role of cultural mediators and official agents in the creation and dissemination of images and representations, since they were used by informal empires to legitimize (Salvatore, 2006).This is an important factor to understand how the relations between the United States and Latin America were raised during the period of study. The mission of the US government office in charge of promoting inter-American relations took advantage of a public diplomacy to develop a series of activities aimed at the general public, and not to the government representatives as traditionally had been done (Cramner y Prutsch, 2012).

For the Mexican case, cultural diplomacy played an important role in at least two immediate moments that serve as background to the practices of the interwar. In the late nineteenth century, when there was a significant deployment of activities abroad. The development and dissemination of the work Mexico, its social evolution coordinated by Justo Sierra, met the requirements of being a well-developed material where aspects of Mexican history and literature could be used to deliver Mexico before the concert of nations. Another variant of this type of cultural diplomacy in the period can be found in the universal exhibitions where Mexico was concerned about showing the world a progressive and civilized image, involving staging arming “the magicians of progress”, writers, artists and diplomats representing the country in international exhibitions (Tenorio, 1998).

After the revolution, the Mexican government was concerned about sending their intellectuals abroad in order to change the negative image of the conflicting revolutionary process. The cultural missions were a key tool for Mexican foreign policy seeking to assert an idea about Mexico through propaganda and cultural enterprises. Thus, alongside economic and political efforts, knowledge and cultural exchange acquires a specific weight that is not limited to artistic and literary production of a country, but their traditions, stereotypes etc. In the early 1920s, Mexico restored diplomatic relations with the South American republics, marking a turning point in cultural diplomacy, since it becomes “one way to maintain international contacts, which were impossible or useless when trying other ways, such as commercial or political alliances”. (Yankelevich, 1997 and Palacios, 2011).

2. Analysis of Results

To narrate the story of the book which we made reference to in the beginning, it was considered an international space of multiple scenarios where the capitals in which these organisms were resident or in which conferences about conferences of intellectual cooperation were conducted gain a special importance: Geneva, Paris, Rome, Mexico, La Havana, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires and Washington. Temporarily, proceeds inside a general frame which is between 1922 to 1948, the years in which this experience was originated and ended. This limit is partial due to the existence of a period between the second half of the decade of the 1940 when the new organizations are born UN and UNESCO in which some instances of the OICI still remain. By following a thematic and chronological beginning, the reader would be able to rebuild its stages, movements and proposals from the principal characters who acted in the Intellectual Cooperation.

2.1. The Society of Spirits

In this first chapter is initially a brief overview that explains how and why inside the League of Nations was born the instance of the International Commission on Intellectual Cooperation (in Geneva), the Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (Paris) and the International Institute of Cinema education (Rome). How, its formation had to overcome a number of challenges and questions as it was seen as a Society of Spirits devoted to moral disarmament. Roughly a path of life of these instances to understand the vagaries of their position within the League of Nations, as well as the limits and scope of the proposals is presented.

Specifically seeks to respond to how actions and the dilemmas this creates during the first years of life of this organization by creating the CICI and the Institutes (Paris and Rome). To understand the context of creation, it is necessary to give a brief overview of the creation of the SDN, focusing on those aspects which help to understand the implications for Latin American countries and reserves that they had the participation of US President Woodrow Wilson signed the Treaty of Versailles and hence in shaping the SDN although this country no later integrated. Thus, the incorporation of several Latin American countries to the work of the OICI, countries involves a new dilemma in the complex balance between America (North) and Europe, Latin American countries face a double linkage simultaneously at international and regional levels. Subsequently, addresses how Mexico was inserted into this body after the Foreign Policy managed to solve a series of political dilemmas, which made difficult its participation. It is interesting to show how the negotiations for Mexico to participate in the instance of Intellectual Cooperation during the 1920s, before the country was incorporated into the League of Nations, it was a valuable tool in this negotiation. This did not mean that there were no difficulties in creating the Mexican Commission for Intellectual Cooperation (CMCI) at the beginning of the 1930s, which were sorted through the efforts of Alfonso Reyes, Genaro Estrada and Alberto Pani. These difficulties did not prevent in successive years, CMCI had an important role, which in general is presented in this chapter and promptly developed in the following.

2.2. Between America and Europe

The next chapter shifts its focus to America to show a series of contrasts. On the one hand, the difficult relationship between Americanism and Latin Americanism as jarring movements that struggled each by a different regional integration proposal. On the other hand how the US tries to maintain control of Intellectual Cooperation at the continental level, performing a series of maneuvers by which although the formation of national commissions that depend on the IIIC are encouraged, the foundation of regional organizations under their domain and function as intermediaries such as the Pan American Institute of Geography and History and the American Institute of Intellectual Cooperation also arises.

Temporarily addresses from the start of the Pan American Conferences, particularly from Scientific Conferences like a space where similar proposals that later-ICCB takes to understand why they arose during the Conference of Havana were discussed (1928) y de Montevideo (1933). This includes attention to two instances that emerged (at least nominally) in these years dedicated to promoting intellectual cooperation in the region: the Pan American Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH) and the American Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC).These instances served a dual purpose. They must parallel to the Pan American Conferences, strengthen interregional relations to use culture as a means to counteract the negative effect of unresolved political conflict. It is clear that by the late 1920s the Pan-American movement required a major shift, to renew ties with Latin American countries in order to mitigate reviews and conflicts that made possible that some of these nations allied with potentially hostile countries. In this sense, initiatives that arise within the Americanism on intellectual cooperation were an important cultural strategy to convince the neighbors to the south of the good intentions of change enacted policy of good neighborliness.

To account for the way in which this interest is maintained and accentuated during the 1930s, it has been included here a brief section to point out the many activities of the Office of Intellectual Cooperation of the Pan American Union (OCIUP).Given the importance of this instance, it is noteworthy features official entrepreneurship from his early years in the 1920s until its demise in the mid-1940s when absorbed by the new instance corresponding to the Organization of American States (OAS). Thus, the fabric of the organization became increasingly complex to maintain international, regional and local levels, instances that somehow must be compatible but in practice overlapping spheres of action.

2.3. Education and International Cooperation

Continuing with the reading it is found the analysis of the teaching of history, a subject that caused a great debate in the ICCB since it was concentrated nested nationalism discourse involving one of the hardest difficulties overcome to achieve international understanding. Through that narrative where regional, national and international elements come together, we will see how American countries begin to have a greater participation in the debates, and how their actions is permanently conditioned by the field of regional strength.

Even when education was considered an indispensable tool to create an international sense to promote peace by fostering mutual understanding through dialogue and not war, in practice, activities related to this challenge were limited. The changes in education were subject to the needs most harmed by the war that required the opinion of the strategists in the League of Nations more urgent attention to rebuild the economy of the powers. Possibly because of this circumstance, the approach followed Intellectual Cooperation around education was cautious and progressive. A comprehensive reform of review and renewal was planned from the upper level to basic education, but from the beginning it was shown that the greatest difficulty to implement an internationalist sense to disseminate the ideals of the League of Nations was at the basic level. Therefore, during the study period, a considerable number of specialist meetings addressing issues of student mobility and teachers, sharing libraries were made, etc. Through these encounters occurred beginning to a series of measures, which are to date key aspects of internationalization of academia and knowledge in general. However, the field where further efforts were concentrated on reviewing manuals, existing texts, especially in history, but also to a lesser extent civics and geography. Thus, nationalism became the second factor is closely associated with the difficulty of implementing the educational project of the ICCB. It examines how and through what mechanisms American countries had a relevant interest in the subject during this period. The scientific meetings that were being done on the continent under the direction of the Pan American Union show signs of how far it was considered important to unify certain principles in education aimed at knowledge of other countries and eliminating enshrined in textbooks prejudices history. Therefore, the chapter focuses on the VII International American Conference in 1933 and in particular the Convention on the Teaching of History, specific meetings within the framework of the General Conference to try to define and standardize the process of revision of textbooks. Despite that it was made in principle to apply Chairs Initiative guidelines on the revision of textbooks, it remained relatively autonomous process. Thus, it was more concerned with achieving -the regional agreements that experienced a slow and complex process for ratification - the event was a positive to serve strengthens the principle of hemispheric solidarity political effect.

2.4. The Republic of Letters and Moral Disarmament

The next two chapters are as stage a series of congresses in Europe and Latin America, events through which we try to rescue the intellectual debates than a decade where the rise of fascism was visible project boundaries International Intellectual Cooperation. They look at the issues of greatest concern among the intelligentsia: the role of intellectuals and the role of culture in a politicized world among large fascists and anti-fascists poles, the reproaches between a Europe that does not want to lose its place as a cultural meridian and a Latin America that seeks to declare feeling worthy heir comes of age.

In the context of interwar legal representation of a Republic that, as an autonomous and defined by the characteristics of its members space, meant that intellectuals join in their traditional battle flags others from international context for updated a non-militaristic, peaceful cause. This widespread notion among those who participated in the project of cooperation, which resulted involved in the project who were convinced of the importance of discussing the role of the intellectual and culture as a way to reposition themselves in the public eye and to criticism own that had arisen within the ICCB. These ideas were expressed in a number of scenarios as the number of cross between European and American intellectuals letters, which published the IIIC in 1933 under the title The society of spirits. To this we add the study of two real encounters that took place in Madrid in 1932, The future of culture and Buenos Aires in 1936, later published under the title Europe and Latin America. This set allows us to observe the deployment of strategies used by two renowned Mexican intellectuals: Alfonso Reyes and Genaro Estrada, to keep the debate with its European and Latin American peers.

For its part, chapter V analyzes how intellectual preoccupations had a meeting with the concerns of education in an international sense through moral disarmament. Considered a complement of military disarmament had begun since the early years of the League of Nations, it started developing the idea that to convince people of the need to eliminate the weapons were necessary to generate in them a pacifist consciousness to substantiate the futility of armed conflicts. Within the framework of the Geneva diplomatic organization actions taken by diplomacy in this regard were closely related to those urging the ICCB. This followed carefully discussed in the Conference on the Reduction and Limitation of armaments (January 1932), meeting after which a series of debates and proposals that culminated in creating a Committee on Moral Disarmament responsible for setting its scope was generated and means. To these activities orchestrated from Europe, from America joined other new features that showed the extent to which participation in the project ICCB was an ideal place to while addressing international concerns and regional issues frame. It is therefore no coincidence that between 1936 and 1938, decisive in Europe to define the outbreak of World War II time, a series of official meetings will be held in the Americas to try to define an action plan that had as so the moral disarmament. In this deployment actions, we are interested specifically at how Mexico was prepared and participated in the Inter-American Conference of Consolidation of Peace in Buenos Aires (December 1936) and the VIII Pan American Conference in Lima (December 1938).

2.5. The American Hour

The discussion of moral disarmament took two different paths in recent years of the study, which run between 1937 and 1948. During these years, the organization of Intellectual Cooperation initially had a time of great activity related to the Second Conference of National Commissions on in Paris and the X Standing Conference of International Studies (both realized en1937), which had been highly productive proposal to consolidate the ICCB through discussion and signing of the Intellectual Cooperation. Through it, a much closer bond between this instance and the governments of the countries linked to the organization was established.

This strategy aimed to reduce conflict between this instance and some governments to prevent detachment also imply a break with the ICCB. Despite these advances and while the war lasted, the ICCB remained at an impasse: the Institute remained closed from 1940 to 1944 during the German occupation of Paris, the refuge both personnel file in Guerande (Brittany), by which recently reopened in Paris in February 1945. During this period Latin came to meet establishing a busy schedule of debates and initiatives with the intention of becoming the -transitory- relay ICCB. Under this, the CNCI the continent, with commissions Cuba and Mexico to the head, promoted the creation of an International Centre for Intellectual Cooperation, CEICI (based in Havana) for that duration of the war took the Chairs Initiative medley of Paris. The proposal took shape through the strenuous efforts of the two conferences of national committees (American) that took place in Santiago (1938) and Havana (1940) and respective intellectual discussions that took place at the conclusion of the discussions.

2.6. When the Peace is Restored

In the last chapter, this duality scenario is repeated from watching how efforts to define were made from Europe, before the end of the war, how would the Intellectual Cooperation be understood when starting the war and how America tried to take sides in the debate for inclusion in the conferences which would be discussed among other things, the meaning the Intellectual Cooperation would take in the new international body that would relieve this interwar project, UNESCO.

As it is known, peace took longer than thought to be reset, so ICCB stayed in a dormant state from 1939-1945 and when it resurfaced, it would do it in a context in which it would have no place. This had a direct impact on the ICCB due to, as a respite it was raised the need to move to this new world the administration of Intellectual Cooperation Organization when creating an International Centre for Intellectual Cooperation (CEICI).

The multiplicity of interests and actions did not allow this initiative was concretized. The illusion of between war was unquestionably completed before the exhaustion of premature aging gained by using unresolved conflicts and during the war the alidades powers met (now with the definite presence of the United States) to plan a new international framework that would less slogans and public discussions and agreements between agents. Politics did made feel their absolute weight, and similar to what happened in the previous world war, war materiality sets the tone for a new war where neither the material nor moral disarmament will be the main agenda item. Once again the cultural projects will be overshadowed by other more pressing needs, although paradoxically meetings to create the United Nations (UN) will be forged through a meeting of Ministers of Education. In this way, without reaching the means for lasting peace, intellectual cooperation as an organization and as an idea became initiated while negotiations to create the UNESCO.

3. Conclusions

Due to the extension of the book we have synthesized, the conclusions of the same can only be outlined as topics for the purposes of this article through two problematical situations. The first one, titled Culture, humanism and diplomacy, states the conviction which the participants of the intellectual cooperation had about they having to fight a symbolic battle which would serve to form the public opinion. The similarity of interests between these intellectual humanists and the proposal of the OICI made this cultural elite to the service of diplomacy, found guaranteed the possibility of performing from a place known as cultural elite and through a familiar and moralizing speech.

The proposals put forward in these debates agreed broadly with more concrete proposals made ICCB as was the revision of textbooks, in order to promote international understanding through education. By undertaking the revision of textbooks, it was sought to raise awareness among countries of the need to clear the contents and representations that will generate animosities to substantiate or generate conflict. Although this was an initial boost in the 1920s and increased to the beginning of the next, the process was unfinished. The initial resistance from some countries-not to conduct the review but to modify contents- followed the advance of totalitarian nationalism and loss of confidence in the League of Nations. If by early 1920 heat-and yet triumphant militarism of the First War-this battle seemed completely unwinnable for the next when the shadow of the new war expanded, the idea almost became a utopia. In this framework, the Intellectual Cooperation disappeared in the transition process that was followed during the 1940s to the creation of new international organizations. In it, the guiding principle of a humanistic education remained but education is underpinned in more specific areas such as literacy. Thus, cooperation was shedding from its intellectual nuance.

The second reflection is around the title Sovereignty, arbitration and peace, with the purpose of retaking in it why for the Latin-American countries the participation in the project of the OICI was a complex but productive experience, because of through it was able to achieve several objectives which improved the cultural relationships: the texts manuals, and the educational cinema, the ordering and spreading of bibliographic material, archives, works of art, and archeological pieces, the artistic scientific and students interchange, as well as the creation and regulation of a legislation in the area of intellectual property.

The second point revolves around the title Sovereignty, arbitration and peace, to resume in it the reason why for Latin American countries participating in the project ICCB it was a complex but fruitful experience because through it managed to achieve several objectives that improved cultural relations: the textbooks and educational film, management, and dissemination of material in libraries, archives, artworks and antiquities, the exchange of artistic, scientific and students as well as the creation and regulation of a legislation on intellectual property. Mexico actively participated in the construction of this set consisting of small parts which, practically, reflecting facet of implying Intellectual Cooperation, both internationally and regionally. But there was another political objective that was of great importance to understand the involvement of the Americas in the ICCB, which although had a close relationship with the ideal of promoting peace as a principle of international cooperation, defended political principles such as respect sovereignty and arbitration. As mentioned in the development of this work, the beginning of the SDN was marked by a series of political tensions between the victors and vanquished European powers. The inclusion of Latin American countries was not fast by a series of political and economic reasons. The process followed by Mexico, serves to illustrate that entry into this organization had to solve not only the relationship with Europe but also with the United States. No wonder then, that the work of Intellectual Cooperation at the regional level were spread as the policy of good neighborliness won sympathy or at least slowed conflicts. Accepting arbitration as conciliatory measure and abandon a foreign policy of invasions, led in the 1930s intense diplomatic activity because for Latin American countries was a good time to uphold the principle of sovereignty as basis for relationships in the region. By the time World War II began, the inter-Americanism that was searching to strengthen its northern neighbor to ensure that the countries of this continent were not allies of the enemies found in action.

4. References

Cramer, G. & Úrsula, P. (ed.) (2012). Américas unidas!/United Americas, in: Nelson A. Rockefeller’s Office of Inter-American Affairs (1940-1946). Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana Vervuert.

Del Arenal, C. (2007). Introducción a las Relaciones Internacionales/Introduction to the International Relations. Madrid: Editorial Tecnos.

Dumont, J. (2008). L’Institut International de Coopération Intellectuelle et le Brésil (1924-1946). Le Péri de la Diplomatie Culturelle/ The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation and Brazil (1924-1946). The Peri for Cultural Diplomacy. Paris: L’Iheal-credal.

***(2008). Le Brésil de Vargas: entre l’Institut International de Coopération Intellectuelle et l’Union Panaméricaine/ Brazil Vargas: between the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation and the Pan American Union. Politique Étrangère dans les Amériques: entre Crises et Alliances/ Foreign Policy in the Americas: between crises and Alliances. Paris.

***(2013). De la coopération intellectuelle à la diplomatie culturelle. Les voies/x de l’Argentine, du Brésil et du Chili (1919-1946)/ Intellectual cooperation in cultural diplomacy. The channels of Argentina, Brazil and Chile (1919-1946). Thesis submitted to obtain doctoral degree at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-París.

Frank, R. (1994). Images et imaginaires dans les relations internationales depuis 1938/ Images and imaginary in international relations since 1938. Cahiers de L’ihtp, No. 28, (june).

Herrera, F. (2002). El proceso de integración de México en la Sociedad de las Naciones (1919-1931)/ The integration of Mexico in the League of Nations (1919-1931), Thesis in History. Morelia: Faculty of History-Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo.

***(2008). México y el Instituto Internacional de Cinematografía Educativa, 1927-1937, in Estudios de Historia Moderna y Contemporánea de México/ Studies of Modern and Contemporary History of Mexico, no. 36, (july-december), pp. 221-259.

***(2009). México y el Instituto Internacional de Cooperación Intelectual, 1926-1939, in Tzintzun, Revista de Estudios Históricos/ Journal of Historical Studies, no. 49, (January 15, 2009).

***(2010). México en la Sociedad de Naciones: modernización y consolidación de una política exterior, 1931-1940/ Mexico in the League: modernization and consolidation of foreign policy, 1931-1940. Unpublished doctoral thesis. Mexico: El Colegio de México.

***(2013). and Patricio Herrera González (coord.), Yannick Wehrli’s prologue, América Latina y la Organización Internacional del Trabajo: redes, cooperación técnica e institucionalidad social (1919-1950)/ Latin America and the International Labour Organisation, networks, technical cooperation and social institutions (1919-1950). Morelia: Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo/University of Monterrey/Universidade Federal Fluminense.

Kolasa, J. (1962). International Intellectual Cooperation: The League Experience and the Beginnings of UNESCO. Poland: Editorial Wroclaw.

Lanux, P. (1950). La República de los Espíritus. Medio siglo de cooperación intelectual/ The Republic of Spirits. Half a century of intellectual cooperation. Revista Mexicana de Sociología/ Mexican Journal of Sociology, vol. 12, no. 2, (may-august) pp. 157-168.

Nye, J. (2004). Soft Power: The means to success in world politics. New York: Public Affairs.

Palacios, G. (2011). América del Sur/ South America, en Vega, M. (coord.) Historia de las relaciones internacionales de México, 1821-2010/ History of the international relations of Mexico, 1821-2010. Mexico City: SRE.

Renoliet, J. (1999). L’Unesco oubliée. La Société des Nations et la Coopération Intellectuelle (1919-1946)/ The Forgotten Unesco. The League of Nations and Intellectual Cooperation (1919-1946). Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne.

Salvatore, R. (2006). Imágenes de un imperio. Estados Unidos y las formas de representación de América Lati/ Images of an empire. US and Latin forms of representation Latin. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana.

Tenorio, M. (1998). Artilugio de la nación moderna. México en las exposiciones universales, 1880-1930/ Gadget of the modern nation. Mexico in the universal exhibitions, 1880-1930. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica.

Yankelevich, P. (1997). Miradas australes. Propaganda, cabildeo y proyección de la Revolución Mexicana en el Río de la Plata, 1910-1930/ Southern looks. Propaganda, lobbying and projection of the Mexican Revolution in the Río de la Plata, 1910-1930. Mexico City: INHERM/SRE.

Refbacks

• There are currently no refbacks.