When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

The situation in our alternative universe continues to heat up, but some might say, for the better. The President Marshall of France, Ferdinand Foch, having survived the recent vote, now has his regime confirmed, but not all delegates have to like it. Foch's regime was buoyed by several successes over the last week, including one development in particular which will leave some delegates happy, and...

The Japanese were utterly determined to pass the racial equality proposal, which actually consisted of a few sentences that would be inserted into the preamble of the League of Nations. This had been their for weeks, and it was publicly known, and feared, by much of the allies, with the exception perhaps of France. Neither the Americans nor the British could afford to accept this proposal, which w...

It's high time we turned our attention to a neglected theatre of this story. No, not Africa...No, not the Middle East...Yes, that's right - Asian! Well, more specifically, just Japan! The story of the Japanese rise to power in the late 19th and early 20th century is one which has always fascinated us here at WDF, but in the context of the Paris Peace Conference, the story becomes more interesting...

After a traumatic event which rocked France, the world and the Peace Conference to its core, how can the delegates involved possibly refocus their attentions to the task at hand - that of making peace? Fear not, the President-Marshall of France is on the case, and with his ambitious, but by no means impossible 16 Points, the hero of France's war effort attempts to become the hero of the peace conf...

In the first week of April, 1919, American President Woodrow Wilson had reached the end of his tether. He was eternally sick of Georges Clemenceau lording the agonies of France over his head - what he needed was compromise, not to be accused of being pro-German by the French premier in one particularly explosive meeting. The rift between American and French leaders had arrived at long last, but it...

Whoa, Nelly, have we got a story for you! In the aftermath of failed efforts to achieve satisfaction with reparations and with the intervention into Russia, one could be left feeling sorry themselves if you happened to be a delegate in this fictional version of Paris in late March 1919. However, the real movements were coming not from the halls of peace, but out on the streets and in the devious m...

We return to the question of reparations with some startling revelations. If you thought the French were the greedy, grasping and bitter sponsors of a massive reparations bill, then prepare to question everything you know! It was not the French, but the politically trapped British PM David Lloyd George, who was in fact the loudest and most inconsistent advocate of a high bill. Why? That question h...

At long last, we turn our attention to the controversial issue of reparations. Perhaps no issue at the Paris Peace Conference, and no single tenet of the Treaty of Versailles has been the source of as much controversy as the question of how much Germany should pay to answer for its crimes of launching the Great War, yet in this first of an unofficial two-parter, we will learn that the conventional...

After a week of conspiracy and controversy, the fallout must be confronted. An exhausted and demoralised cast of delegates are challenged with creating some kind of policy approach to Russia, to listening to one another without going crazy, and with remaining wary at all times of former enemies, or should that be former friends? Regardless of what they planned to do in the future, there could be n...

A century ago today, Budapest was circling the drain of revolution, after several months of Bolshevik infiltration and grand promises, combined with mounting frustrations over President Mihaly Karolyi's consistent failings. What was to be done about the situation in Hungary? Where a population was so desperate to realise their dream of independence after four centuries under Habsburg rule? The all...

Check out the collaboration I did with Thom Daly, where we talked about Ireland and Brexit!   As the Paris Peace Conference welcomed back the American President and the Big Three began to entrench themselves once more into the familiar grind, it became clear that much had changed. Rather than move further away from each other, it was fortunate indeed that the allied leaders determined to doub...

Episode 7 of the game analyses the events surrounding the shocking murder of Georges Clemenceau, and the return of the American President to the scene. How will the President cope with the new atmosphere of cooperation, facilitated by Roosevelt's help and support, when he couldn't stand the man? How will France cope with its shattering loss of the father of victory? What other schemes were ongoing...

After a month back home in the States, it was high time Woodrow Wilson returned to face the music in Paris. Exactly what tune this music would contain varied depending on whom you asked. Would Wilson find support in the leaders of the free world, or would he find only opportunists instead? What kind of impact upon the negotiations would be had by the Republican Party openly condemning his League C...

Our largest episode yet, with an absolute legion of things to get through... it must be the first two weeks of March, 1919! Herein we see several things go down in the Council of Ten, which was still shorn of its major leaders, but which did not sit still nonetheless. The Italians get antsy over some bad Serbian behaviour, everyone gets antsy about the Germans and their army, Lloyd George returns...

In episode 45 of the Versailles Anniversary Project, we examine the lesser known mission of William C. Bullitt, Philadelphia aristocrat and Ivy League prodigy – at least according to his mother – who was selected to lead a top secret American delegation to Soviet Russia. Bullitt’s aims were multi-layered, and he didn’t quite understand the limits of this mission or of his own capabilities, but tha...

In our latest episode, we introduce you to the revolutionary wasteland that was Russia in 1919. Russia was a very confusing place at this time, because it was the subject of a lot of debate regarding that key question – should the allies launch some kind of military expedition against the Bolsheviks? That apparently simple question was complicated by the fact that the allies already had forces in...

Before we delve into the Russian situation, I felt it would be beneficial, and darkly interesting, to examine what was happening in between the lands caught in the middle of the Russian and German crises. The Freikorps - disgruntled, right wing, extremist former soldiers and civilians, was exactly the wrong ingredient to help heal a fractured portion of the continent. Yet, unable to accept that th...

The unofficial second parter to our examination of Woodrow Wilson's campaign to get the League of Nations approved of back home, in episode 42 we further our analysis of the different parties and their interests in the US. Who was in favour of the League, who wanted the League with some adjustments, and who was resolutely opposed to it no matter what? Where did Henry Cabot Lodge fit into this slid...

In the aftermath of Woodrow Wilson's exit from Paris, along with the British and Italian premiers, Clemenceau was alone to hold the fort against a resurgent and empowered German delegation. It was at that moment that an anarchist's bullet felled the Tiger, which provided an unprecedented opportunity for the Germans to fill this newly emerged power vacuum. This development, as we will discover, wil...

The last two weeks of February 1919 were awash with legions of issues, hurt feelings, long winded speeches and too many other details to possibly count. We've already seen the period from the point of view of Harold Nicolson, but was it any better of an experience for those that were actually empowered to act? Hint - not really, but to truly unpack all that this whopper episode has to offer, you m...

Spare a thought for poor old Harold Nicolson...  Mr Nicolson was a senior clerk in the British Foreign Office, and by mid-February 1919, he had already had his patience strained and his grand ambitions challenged. What lay ahead of this man once the American President departed for the US is a story not often told - the human tale. Here we hear it all and lay it bare. Between the period of 19t...

Today in history, a deranged assailant attacked the father of victory, plunging France and all of Europe into a panic, and setting off the next phase of the Paris Peace Conference... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we bravely venture to where this podcast normally steers clear - American politics. This is an essential trip though, because we must examine what happened in the US once the President returned there to present his League between 20 February and 8 March 1919. This period was spent campaigning for the new world order which Wilson so desperately wanted, and which he had fought for in person in...

Oh boy, this is gonna be a good one! Episode 5 of the Delegation Game examines the aftermath of some pretty important deals which were passed, by hook or by crook, and which now challenge those present in Paris to adapt. The League of Nations Charter is the most significant of these, and in this very eventful, chunky episode, we examine the perspective of the King of the Belgians, Albert I, who wa...

OTD in history 100 years ago – the League of Nations was given a covenant, stamped and signed with seals of approval from all the attending allied powers that had taken so long to reach this decision. The first two weeks of February 1919 had indeed been eventful and exhausting for many, but this here was the first piece of true, genuine progress that had been reached. It was Woodrow Wilson’s great...