When the League of Nations was established in 1920, Nitobe became one of the Under-Secretaries General of the League, and moved to Geneva, Switzerland. He became the director of the International Bureaux Section, in charge of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (which later became UNESCO under the United Nations' mandate). His legacy in this period includes the settlement of territorial dispute between Sweden and Finland over the Swedish-speaking Åland Islands. In its resolution, the Islands remained under the Finnish control, but adopted complete disarmament (i.e., no military presence on the islands) and granted autonomy, averting a possible armed conflict (See also Åland crisis).