The Washington Naval Treaty is usually treated, when mentioned at all by historians, as an unmitigated failure, but—although he says this in the most pianissimo tones—I think John Jordan’s Warships After Washington: The Development of the Five Major Fleets, 1922-1930 makes a strong case that in achieving its limited ambitions the treaty was very effective, and actually served the goals of all the contracting powers fairly well. The treaty, generally, is regarded as a failure because World War II happened. That's rather a great burden to place on an agreement which mostly deals with the...












