Paul Henri Balluet d'Estournelles de Constant

Paul Henri Benjamin Balluet d'Estournelles de Constant, Baron de Constant de Rebecque, was born 22 November 1852 into a family whose name alone suggested old aristocracy and long memory. He entered French diplomatic service and spent years watching how quickly negotiations could collapse into threat. He became an advocate of international arbitration — the notion that states might bind themselves to neutral judges instead of mobilizing armies. The work earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1909. He died 15 May 1924, six years after the war that showed how fragile those instruments were.