Sarah Wambaugh

Sarah Wambaugh

The post-World War One peace treaties left several unresolved territorial disputes across Europe and may have revived previously dormant conflicts elsewhere, especially in Latin America. The League of Nations sought to settle these disputes by internationally monitored plebiscites, from Schleswig in 1920 to the Saar in 1935. Sarah Wambaugh (1882-1955), a now forgotten American political scientist, was the undisputed authority on territorial plebiscites, travelling the world as an international observer for the League, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and various national governments. Wambaugh wrote extensively on these always contentious and sometimes violent elections, and on the wider theory and practice of plebiscitary democracy. A confirmed internationalist and feminist, she believed that internationally co-ordinated plebiscites entrenched democratic practice and promoted the rights of women and other disenfranchised constituencies.

ACME Newspictures