The Lake Mohonk Conferences on International Arbitration (1895-1916): Evoking and Mobilizing an ‘International Mind’

Hucker, Daniel

Abstract

Between 1895 and 1916, a Conference on International Arbitration met annually at Lake Mohonk, New York, seeking to implement arbitration as a substitute for war. This article considers the aims, effects, and limitations of these conferences, including the problematic assumptions underpinning their apparent progressivism. The belief that an enlightened public opinion would play a decisive role in advancing arbitration will be interrogated, as will the conviction that the Mohonk group provided a mouthpiece for an emergent ‘international mind.’ The article shows how these conferences evoked a ‘global’ public opinion that was simultaneously (and paradoxically) expansive, exclusionary, forcible, and manipulable. It reveals too how American conceptions of internationalism took shape, anticipating aspects of Wilsonianism.

Citation

Hucker, D. (2024). The Lake Mohonk Conferences on International Arbitration (1895-1916): Evoking and Mobilizing an ‘International Mind’. Journal of American Studies, 58(1), 39-66. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021875823000324

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 13, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Aug 30, 2023
• Publication Date: 2024-02
• Deposit Date: Jun 24, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 25, 2024
• Journal: Journal of American Studies
• Print ISSN: 0021-8758
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-5154
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 58
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 39-66
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021875823000324
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/22177079
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-american-studies/article/lake-mohonk-conferences-on-international-arbitration-18951916-evoking-and-mobilizing-an-international-mind/F69BC4B29102B323F2439AA7C0204F6C
• Additional Information: Copyright: Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press in association with the British Association for American Studies; License: This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.; Free to read: This content has been made available to all.