Aristide Briand Aristide Briand ( ; 28 March 1862 – 7 March 1932 ) was a French statesman who served eleven terms as Prime Minister of France during the French Third Republic and was a co - laureate of the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize . Early life . He was born in Nantes , Loire - Atlantique of a " petit bourgeois " family . He attended the Nantes Lycée , where , in 1877 , he developed a close friendship with Jules Verne . He studied law , and soon went into politics , associating himself with the most advanced movements , writing articles for the anarchist journal " Le Peuple " , and directing the " Lanterne " for some time . From this he passed to the " Petite République " , leaving it to found " L ' Humanité " , in collaboration with Jean Jaurès . Activism . At the same time he was prominent in the movement for the formation of trade unions , and at the congress of working men at Nantes in 1894 he secured the adoption of the labor union idea against the adherents of Jules Guesde . From that time , Briand was one of the leaders of the French Socialist Party . In 1902 , after several unsuccessful attempts , he was elected deputy . He declared himself a strong partisan of the union of the Left in what was known as the " Bloc " , in order to check the reactionary Deputies of the Right . From the beginning of his career in the Chamber of Deputies , Briand was occupied with the question of the separation of church and state . He was appointed reporter of the commission charged with the preparation of the 1905 law on separation , and his masterly report at once marked him out as one of the coming leaders . He succeeded in carrying his project through with but slight modifications , and without dividing the parties upon whose support he relied . He was the principal author of the law of separation , but , not content with preparing it , he wished to apply it as well . The ministry of Maurice Rouvier was allowing disturbances during the taking of inventories of church property , a clause of the law for which Briand was not responsible . Consequently he accepted the portfolio of Public Instruction and Worship in the Sarrien ministry ( 1906 ) . So far as the Chamber was concerned , his success was complete . But the acceptance of a position in a bourgeois ministry led to his exclusion from the Unified Socialist Party ( March 1906 ) . As opposed to Jaurès , he contended that the Socialists should co - operate actively with the Radicals in all matters of reform , and not stand aloof to await the complete fulfillment of their ideals . Prime Minister of France . Briand succeeded Clemenceau as Prime Minister in 1909 , serving until 1911 , and served again for a few months in 1913 . In October 1915 , following French defeats in the First World War , Briand again became Prime Minister , and , for the first time , Foreign Minister , succeeding René Viviani and Théophile Delcassé respectively . His tenure was not particularly successful , and he resigned in March 1917 as a result of disagreements over the prospective Nivelle Offensive , to be succeeded by Alexandre Ribot . 1920s . Briand returned to power in 1921 . He supervised the French role in the Washington Naval Conference of 1921 – 22 . Three factors guided the French strategy and necessitated a Mediterranean focus : the French navy needed to carry a great many goods , the Mediterranean was the axis of chief interest , and a supply of oil was essential . The primary goal was to defend French North Africa , and Briand made practical choices , for naval policy was a reflection of overall foreign policy . The Conference agreed on the American proposal that capital ships be limited to a ratio of 5 to 5 to 3 for the United States , Britain , and Japan , with Italy and France allocated 1 . 7 each . France ' s participation reflected its need to deal with its diminishing power and reduced human , material , and financial resources . Briand ' s efforts to come to an agreement over reparations with the Germans failed in the wake of German intransigence , and he was succeeded by the more bellicose Raymond Poincaré . In the wake of the Ruhr Crisis , however , Briand ' s more conciliatory style became more acceptable , and he returned to the Quai d ' Orsay in 1925 . He would remain foreign minister until his death in 1932 . During this time , he was a member of 14 cabinets , three of which he headed himself . Briand negotiated the Briand - Ceretti Agreement with the Vatican , giving the French government a role in the appointment of Catholic bishops . Kellogg - Briand Pact . Aristide Briand received the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize together with Gustav Stresemann of Germany for the Locarno Treaties ( Austen Chamberlain of the United Kingdom had received a share of the Peace Prize a year earlier for the same agreement ) . A 1927 proposal by Briand and United States Secretary of State Frank B . Kellogg for a universal pact outlawing war led the following year to the Pact of Paris , aka the " Kellogg - Briand Pact " . The cordial relations between Briand and Stresemann , the leading statesmen of their respective countries , were cut short by the unexpected death of Stresemann in 1929 and of Briand in 1932 . Briand Plan for European union . As foreign minister Briand formulated an original proposal for a new economic union of Europe . Described as Briand ' s Locarno diplomacy and as an aspect of Franco - German rapprochement , it was his answer to Germany ' s quick economic recovery and future political power . Briand made his proposals in a speech in favor of a European Union in the League of Nations on 5 September 1929 , and in 1930 , in his " Memorandum on the Organization of a Regime of European Federal Union " for the Government of France . The idea was to provide a framework to contain France ' s former enemy while preserving as much of the 1919 Versailles settlement as possible . The Briand plan entailed the economic collaboration of the great industrial areas of Europe and the provision of political security to Eastern Europe against Soviet threats . The basis was economic cooperation , but his fundamental concept was political , for it was political power that would determine economic choices . The plan , under the Memorandum on the Organization of a System of European Federal Union , was in the end presented as a French initiative to the League of Nations . With the death of his principal supporter , German foreign minister Gustav Stresemann , and the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 , Briand ' s plan was never adopted but it suggested an economic framework for developments after World War II that eventually resulted in the European Union . Governments . Briand ' s second Government , 3 November 1910 – 2 March 1911 . Changes Briand ' s fifth Government , 29 October 1915 – 12 December 1916 . Changes Briand ' s sixth Government , 12 December 1916 – 20 March 1917 . Changes Briand ' s eighth Government , 28 November 1925 – 9 March 1926 . Changes Briand ' s ninth Government , 9 March – 23 June 1926 . Changes