Zafar Shayan
Paul d’Estournelles de Constant was a French diplomat, politician, and internationalist who won the 1909 Nobel Peace Prize. He was born in 1852 in La Freche, France and died in 1924 in Paris. He studied Law and Oriental Languages at the Lycée Louis le Grand in Paris.
Ertournellese de Constant launched his diplomatic career in 1876 in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He represented France in Montenegro, Turkey, The Netherlands, England, and Tunis. In 1882, he came back to Paris and started working as the assistant of the director of the Near Eastern Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1890, he was appointed as the French chargé d’affaires in London, where he tried to avert a possible war between England and France over colonial conflict interests.
In 1895, he ran for parliament and won a seat as deputy from Sarthe. In 1904, Estournelles de Constant could secure a seat in Senate and worked there until his death. He was chosen to represent France in the first Hague Peace Conference in 1899 and led the formation of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. When the court was almost ignored by governments, he could influence Theodore Roosevelt to submit a U.S. – Mexico dispute to the Hague Tribunal.
In 1903, He establish a senatorial group of Frenches in order to improve international arbitration and exchange visits with foreign parliamentarians. A goodwill mission to London was sent in 1903 and some British parliamentarians visited Paris, which resulted in the provision of Entente Cordiale in 1904 through which the long-standing conflict between France and England was ended. Also, a visit to Germany in 1903, could pave the way for the Franco-German Association.
In 1905, Estournelles de Constant established the Association for International Conciliation in Paris, with a few branches in other countries. He saw the formation of the European Union as a solution to the problems of Europe. He tried to find diplomatic solutions through various roles such as a contributor of the Interparliamentary Union, member of the French delegation in the second Hague Peace Conference in 1907, member of Permanent Court of Arbitration, and the president of the European Center of the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace.
During the First World War, despite supporting France against Germany, he always campaigned for international understanding. Together with Leon Bourgeois, the 1920 Noble Peace Prize winner, he presented a plan for the League of Nations to Clemenceau in 1918. Estournelles Constant never stop striving to bring parliamentarians from different countries, especially Frenches and Germans together for reconciliations. He has also written many works on arbitration and peace and gave various speeches.
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Paul Henri d’Estournelles de Constant – Biographical. nobelprize.org