Abstract
In these troubled times when so many nations of the world are at variance with one another, the harmonious relations between the United States and Canada are a beacon light pointing out the fact that peace and mutual respect are possible between two nations whose very similarities in language, interests, attitudes, and industries often give rise to rivalries and bitter contention for national preferments. |While taking a course on the period of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, I was impressed with the use of arbitration as a means of peaceful settlement of disputes between nations. Roosevelt's belief in the effectiveness of arbitration and the justification of that belief are demonstrated in the successful settlement of the three controversies which form the subject of this thesis, the Alaska Boundary Settlement in 1903, the Bering Sea Arbitration in 1912, and the most ancient of the three disputes, the North Atlantic Fisheries Controversy in 1912. |It is not my intention to discuss all the disputes which arose between the United States and Canada through the years, nor to go into every aspect of the disputes chosen for study, but rather to give a clear understanding of the nature of the questions and something of the negotiations which brought about their settlement, affording at the same time some insight into the diplomatic usage employed by the negotiators and the final settlement of the disputes. The study is limited to the period between the years 1900 and 1912.