Consequences of Peace: The Versailles Settlement: Aftermath and Legacy 1919-2010(Makers of the Modern World)

This final volume in the Makers of the Modern World series will evaluate the immediate and later effects of the last and arguably only attempt to settle the world's affairs at a stroke. With its focus on the decisions taken at Versailles, Alan Sharp scrutinizes the ideas that came to define the twentieth century, including the "German Problem," the rise of the United States as a world power, the League and United Nations, self-determination, minority protection, and the rise of international law. With so many of the world's conflicts traceable to the Paris Peace Conference (most obviously the ongoing troubles in the Middle East), the conferences have always cast a long shadow, though their reputation worsened towards the end of the last century, with commentators and historians suggesting that the post-1989 ethnic disturbances in the Balkans and on the fringes of the former Soviet Union are "the old chickens of Versailles coming home to roost." But to what extent are the makers of the modern world culpable for the strife that was later laid at their door? And are later failures in diplomacy and international relations just as blameworthy? Alan Sharp is the editor of the Makers of the Modern World series. He was provost of the Coleraine campus at the University of Ulster, where he was previously head of the School of History and International Affairs. Professor Sharp is an internationally recognized expert on the Treaty of Versailles and his publications include "The Versailles Settlement: Peacemaking in Paris, 1919."

About the Author :
ALAN SHARP is Provost of the Coleraine Campus at the University of Ulster. He joined the History Department at Ulster in 1971 and has been successively Professor of International Studies, a post in which he helped to set up degrees in International Studies and, later, International Politics, Head of the School of History and International Affairs, and since 2006 Provost of the Coleraine Campus. The focus of his teaching and research has been 20th-century international history and British foreign policy after the First World War, with a particular emphasis on the making and implementation of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 on which he is an internationally recognised expert. His major publications include The Versailles Settlement: Peacemaking in Paris, 1919 (1991) and two edited collections, Anglo-French Relations in the Twentieth Century: Rivalry and Cooperation (2000) co- edited with Professor Glyn Stone, and a special edition of Diplomacy and Statecraft in September 2005, co-edited with Professor Conan Fischer, entitled 'The Versailles Settlement; Enforcement; Compliance; Contested Identities' also published as After the Versailles Treaty (Routledge, 2007). He has also published widely on the Foreign Office under Lord Curzon and the foreign policy of the Lloyd George government.