After Armenian intervention in 1921, Hoover's administration was paralyzed in its ability to address foreign policy. With isolationism being supported among most parties, and the American populace at the time, Hoover struggled to pursue an internationalist foreign policy, despite American membership in the League of Nations. Aside from the Washington Naval Conference, there would be no major foreign policy action until late 1922.
In contrast to the general prosperity and economic growth in America at the time, Germany's economy was collapsing. The government, led by president Friedrich Ebert and a revolving door of Chancellors, struggled to pay back reparations owed to the Entente. By 1922, Germany regular struggled to pay back the raw materials owed to France, leading the French government 5o threaten to occupy the Ruhr region of Germany. As tensions mounted between the nations, Hoover, alongside British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, sought to relieve this by calling for negotiations between Belgium, France, America, and Britain. Italy was invited as well, but was unable to attend due to the outbreak of Civil War weeks before the negotiations were set to begin. America's delegates to the negotiations included Ambassador to the United Kingdom Charles Dawes, Secretary of State Frank Kellogg, and director of the American Relief Association in Europe Walter Lyman Brown. After months of negotiations, a settlement was reached, in which the French government promised not to occupy the Ruhr region, Germany's reparations would be eased from 132 billion gold marks to 112 billion, Germany would pay 800 million gold marks for five years after the implementation of the plan, then 2 billion per year after that, and America would loan 250 million per year to Germany. All the powers involved agreed to the plan, though the French government only reluctantly came around after pressure from the United States and United Kingdom.
The implementation of this plan in 1923 had an immediate impact on the Weimar Republic, with American loans enabling the fractured economy to rebuild. This was a victory for Chancellor Joseph Wirth, who intended on resigning his post prior to British and American calls for negotiations. It gave a sense of stability to the Weimar government, though this would not last forever. The negotiations had the opposite impact on the French government, as Prime Minister Raymond Poincare, who initially planned the occupation of the Ruhr, was completely humiliated, and the French economy beginning a decline.