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Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)
An international agreement formally known as the General Treaty for Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy, signed in Paris on August 27, 1928. It was initiated by US Secretary of State Frank Kellogg and French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand. Sixty-three nations eventually signed, including Germany, the USSR, Italy, and Japan. The pact committed signatories to renounce war as an instrument of national policy and to resolve disputes through peaceful means. It had no enforcement mechanism. Critics noted that it did not define aggression or provide for collective action against aggressors. In practice it proved ineffective: Japan violated it by invading Manchuria in 1931; Germany by remilitarizing and then invading its neighbors.