How did the Pact of Locarno address Germany’s disputes with Poland and Czechoslovakia?

The Pact of Locarno did not provide the same level of security for Germany’s eastern borders as it did for its western ones. While Germany formally renounced the use of force to alter its western frontiers with France and Belgium, it only agreed to settle disputes with Poland and Czechoslovakia through arbitration treaties.

Under the terms of the pact, Germany committed to using pacific means to resolve conflicts with these eastern neighbors, but it did not guarantee their borders as inviolable in the same manner as the Franco-German and German-Belgian frontiers. Furthermore, while Great Britain pledged to defend France and Belgium against aggression, it explicitly declined to extend similar military guarantees to Poland or Czechoslovakia. Consequently, the pact left Germany’s eastern borders open to potential future revision, a goal Gustav Stresemann pursued throughout his tenure as foreign minister, even as he sought reconciliation with Western powers.12