Stimson Doctrine

Categories: Foreign policy doctrines

The Stimson Doctrine is a policy of the United States government, enunciated in a note of January 7 1932 to Japan and China, of non-recognition of international territorial changes effected by force.

Named after Henry L. Stimson, United States Secretary of State in the Hoover Administration (1929–1933), the policy followed Japan's unilateral seizure of Manchuria in north-eastern China following action by Japanese soldiers at Mukden (now Shenyang), on September 18 1931.

The policy was subsequently incorporated in several international declarations, including a League of Nations Assembly resolution of March 11 1932, the Inter-American Pact of Rio de Janeiro (October 10 1933) and the Budapest Articles of Interpretation (September 10 1934) of the August 1928 Pact of Paris (Kellogg-Briand Pact). The principles of this doctrine were also used in the US Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles's declaration of July 23 1940, on the non-recognition policy of the Soviet annexation and incorporation of three Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. These principles were strongly pursued until the restoration of independence of the three Baltic nations in August 1991.de:Hoover-Stimson-Doktrin