The First ‘Real’ Peace Settlements after the First World War: Britain, the United States and the Accords of London and Locarno, 1923–1925

This article presents a new, revisionist interpretation of the international agreements of London (1924) and Locarno (1925), analysing them as the first "real" peace settlements after the First World War. It argues that these agreements, and the British and American policies that led to them, laid foundations for a new transatlantic international order in the 1920s that contributed decisively to the stabilisation of Europe by reforming the ill-founded Versailles system of 1919 and fostering the international integration of Weimar Germany on terms enhancing the security of its neighbours, notably France and Poland.