Central Organisation for a Durable Peace Collected Records

The Central Organisation for a Durable Peace was formed at The Hague (the Netherlands) in April 1915 by representatives from nine European nations and the United States. The deliberations of this meeting were summarized in a manifesto, and a nine point minimum-program calling for coercive sanctions, which were studied by nine international research committees and several national committees. The Organisation's statement of purpose emphasized pacifistic and liberal principles as requisite for a "new diplomacy" that they hoped would emerge as a consequence of World War I. Departing from strict pacifism, the organization expressed a willingness to accept military sanctions against countries that started hostilities without first making a good faith effort to resolve a dispute by submitting to international arbitration or making some other appeal to the existing peace machinery.

The Organisation met throughout the war to discuss the basis of a durable peace, not disbanding until after the Treaty of Versailles, but the American Branch's main activities occurred before the U.S. entry into the war in 1917. American peace leaders involved with the Organisation included Fannie Fern Andrews, Emily Greene Balch and William I. Hull.