Treaty History Blog

What Makes a Treaty Binding

Treaties bind under international law through consent expressed by competent authorities, ratification, and registration with the UN under Article...

The Unequal Treaties That Reshaped Asia

From Nanjing 1842 to the Boxer Protocol 1901, China, Japan, Siam, and Korea signed treaties under duress, with extraterritoriality, fixed tariffs...

Westphalia: The Peace That Made the Modern State System

The 1648 settlement ended the Thirty Years War and is credited with inventing sovereignty as we know it, states supreme within borders, equal in law...

A Short History of Arms Control Treaties

From the 1963 Limited Test Ban to New START, arms control evolved through eras, the golden age of SALT and the ABM Treaty, the deep cuts of START...

Famous Treaty Failures and What They Taught

Versailles taught the dangers of humiliation without lasting enforcement. Munich taught the limits of appeasement. Kyoto taught that binding targets...

Anatomy of a Peace Treaty

Peace treaties share a skeleton, cessation of hostilities, territorial settlements, prisoners and reparations, guarantees and enforcement, amnesty...