If the Austro-Hungarian empire gave way to a new order of nation-states
at the end of the First World War, the birth of that order coincided
with a broader new international settlement with the League of Nations
at its heart. In light of new literature on the relationship between
empire and international order, as well as on the relationship between
regional and international orders, this workshop will examine the
interaction of the League of Nations and its sister organizations, like
the ILO, with the former Habsburg lands.Across a range of economic, social, political, and legal domains,
international institutions shaped and guaranteed the new order in
Central Europe. At the same time, statesmen, bureaucrats and experts
from the successor states embarked on influential careers in the new
organizations.

Considering the passive involvement of the monarchy with the new
internationalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, as
well as the empire’s own legacies of supranational organization, we
intend to explore the networks of influence that bound the successor
states to the institutions of the interwar order.

To what extent were those interactions inflected by imperial pasts? Were
some successor states more active participants in those institutions
than others? In which ways and on which occasions did the League and the
successor states offer each other political opportunities?

————————————————————————
Day One: Thursday, 10 December

Registration: 08:30 a.m.
Welcome: 09:00 a.m.

Morning Session    PANEL ONE
Empires and States: Public Campaigns, New Claims, and Political
Legacies

09:15-10:00
Michael Dean (California): The Imperial Internationalism of Small
States: Czechoslovakia and the League of Nations, 1918-1938

10:00-10:45
Zoltan Peterecz (Eger, HU): Hungary and the League of Nations: A Forced
Marriage

10:45-11:15 Coffee break

11:15-12:00
Reinhard Blänkner (Frankfurt Oder): Peaceful Change? The Austrian
Memoranda-Group at the League of Nations‘ General Study Conference on
Peaceful Change, Paris, June 28 – July 3, 1937
12:00-14:00 Lunch break

Afternoon Session    PANEL TWO
Minorities and Nationalities between Empire and Internationalization

14:00-14:45
Stefan Dyroff (Bern): The Minority Protection System of the League of
Nations and the Legacy of the Habsburg Empire

14:45-15:30
Nathan Markus (St. Petersberg): The League of Nations and National
Minorities: The Case of South Tyrol

15:30-16:00 Coffee break

16:00-16:45
Börries Kuzmany (Vienna): National-Personal Autonomy. A Habsburg Concept
Transferred to Interwar Minority Protection Organizations

16:45-17:30
Jana Osterkamp (Munich): Promoting Jews as a Nationality: The
Perspective of Viennese Chief Rabbi Chajes

19:30
Evening: Keynote Lecture
Glenda Sluga (Sydney): ‚Global Austria‘ and the League of Nations:
Reframing the history of empire and internationalism

Day Two: Friday, 11 December

Morning Session    PANEL THREE
National Delegates and International Work: Refashioning the League

09:00-09:45
Jíra Janác (Prague): Making Czechoslovakia a European Crossroad:
Czechoslovak Experts in the Advisory and Technical Committee on
Communications and Transit of the League of Nations

09:45-10:30
Madeleine Dungy (Cambridge, US): Defending the Rights of Austrian
„Foreigners“ in the League Economic Committee

10:30-11:00 Coffee break

11:00-11:45
Katja Naumann (Leipzig): Empowering the League of Nations: Polish,
Hungarian and Czechoslovakian Officers and Experts

11:45-12:30
Madeleine Herren (Basel): International Civil Servants

12:30-14:00 Lunch break

Afternoon Session    PANEL FOUR
Epistemic Communities and Networks of Experts: Refashioning the Region

14:00-14:45
Sara Silverstein (New Haven): Healthcare and Humanism: Imperial Legacies
in the League’s Social Programs

14:45-15:30: David Petruccelli (Vienna)
Fighting the Scourge of International Crime: Illiberal Internationalism
and the League of Nations

15:30-16:00 Coffee break

16:00-16:45
Michael Burri (Philadelphia): Clemens von Pirquet and Children as Object
of International Concern at the League of Nations

16:45-17:30
Johannes Feichtinger (Wien): Expectations, Visions, and Frustrations:
Alfons Dopsch and the League Intellectual Cooperation Program

Day Three: Saturday, 12 December

Morning Session    PANEL FIVE
Economic Reconstruction and Legacies of International Governance

09:30-10:15
Patricia Clavin and Mary Cox (Oxford): A Global Node, a Global Order:
Austria and the invention of ‚Positive Security‘

10:15-11:00
Jürgen Nautz (Warburg): „… insoweit es möglich und sobald es möglich
ist…“ Agency and Perception of economic experts – the Schüller case

11:00-11:30 Coffee break

11:30-12:15
Antonie Dolezalová (Prague): Financing the New Czechoslovakia

12:15-14:30 Lunch break

14:30
Final Debate
General Comments and Moderation by Natasha Wheatley and Peter Becker