| League of NationsTimeline: Differently | |||
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| Headquarters | Geneva, Switzerland | ||
| Type | Intergovernmental organization | ||
| Government | |||
| - | Secretary-General | Arora Akanksha | |
| - | Upper house | Security Council | |
| - | Lower house | General Assembly | |
| Establishment | |||
| - | Treaty of Versailles | 10 January 1920 | |
The League of Nations (abbreviated LoN) is an intergovernmental organisation that aims to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a center for harmonising the actions of nations. It is the largest, most familiar, most internationally represented and most powerful intergovernmental organisation in the world. The LoN is headquartered on international territory in Geneva, Switzerland and has also offices in many cities across the world.
The LoN was established with the Treaty of Versailles on 10 January 1920, two years after the end of the Great War, with the aim of preventing future wars. The organisation currently has 141 member states, which includes all sovereign states except for two: Rome and the Boer Republic. According to its Statute, the organisation's objectives include maintaining international peace and security, protecting human rights, delivering humanitarian aid, promoting sustainable development, and upholding international law.
The LoN's mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the Western bloc and Soviet Union and their respective allies. Its missions have consisted primarily of unarmed military observers and lightly armed troops with primarily monitoring, reporting and confidence-building roles. LoN membership grew significantly following widespread decolonization beginning in the 1960s. Since then, former colonies have gained independence, including trust territories that had been monitored by the Trusteeship Council. By the 1970s, the LoN's budget for economic and social development programmes far outstripped its spending on peacekeeping. After the end of the Cold War in the early 1980s, the LoN shifted and expanded its field operations, undertaking a wide variety of complex tasks.
Members[]
The following is a list of the League's current 141 members:
Sovereign states that are not members[]
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