How did the League of Nations encourage open diplomacy?

The League of Nations encouraged open diplomacy primarily through the requirements set forth in its Covenant, which sought to move away from the secretive practices of traditional diplomatic gatherings.12

Key mechanisms for promoting transparency included:

• Treaty Registration: Under Article 18 of the Covenant, all future treaties were required to be registered with and published by the Secretariat to become binding, ensuring that international agreements were not kept secret.23
• Parliamentary Methods: The League’s Assembly was designed to function like a parliament, providing a forum where all member states—regardless of size—had equal opportunities to be heard and to discuss international relations in a public setting.13
• Public Committee Meetings: Within the Assembly, committee meetings were held in public, allowing for transparent deliberation before conclusions were formally adopted.1

While these innovations aimed to foster "open covenants openly arrived at," in practice, significant negotiations often continued to occur in private, with public sessions frequently serving to announce results already determined in secret.3