Where are the idealists in interwar International Relations?

Review of International Studies

Volumn 32, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 291-308

  Ashworth, Lucian M ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 33744748034     PISSN: 02602105     EISSN: 14699044     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0260210506007030     Document Type: Review

References (112)

1. See, for example, Peter Wilson, 'The Myth of the First Great Debsite' Review of International Studies, 24(1998);
2. Lucian M. Ashworth, Creating International Studies: Angell, Mitrany and the Liberal Tradition (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999), ch. 5;
3. Lucian M. Ashworth, 'Did the Realist-Idealist Great Debate Really Happen?' International Relations, 16 (2002), pp. 33-51;
4. Peter Wilson, The International Theory of Leonard Woolf: A Study in Twentieth-Century Idealism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
5. David Long and Peter Wilson (eds.), Thinkers of the Twenty Years' Crisis: Inter-War Idealism Reassessed (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995):
6. A. J. P. Taylor, The Trouble Makers (London: Panther, 1969).
7. Carr has boon well served by some recent reappraisals of his work. See Charles Jones, E. H. Carr: A Duty to Lie (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998),
8. and Jonathan Haslam, The Vices of Integrity: E. H. Carr 1892-1982 (London: Verso, 2000).
9. Peter Wilson, The International Theory of Leonard Woolf: A Study in Twentieth Century Idealism (New York: Palgrave, 2003), p. vi.
10. For a particularly overt arid well developed materialist approach, see the arguments in Norman Angell, The Great Illusion: A Study of the Relation of Military Power in Nations to their Economic and Social Advantage (Toronto: McClelland arid Goodchild, 1911);
11. and H. N. Brailsford, The War of Steel and Gold; A Study of the Armed Peace (London: Bell, 1914). Both of these books were reprinted many times in the interwar period.
12. See Paul Rich, 'Alfred Zimmem's Cautious Idealism: The League of Nations, International Education and the Commonwealth', in Long and Wilson, Thinkers of the Twenty Years' Crisis, p. 80;
13. Wilson, International Theory of Leonard Woolf, p. 1;
14. Ashworth, Creating International Studies, p. 76.
15. Wilson, International Theory of Leonard Woolf, ch. 2.
16. James Ramsay MacDonald, The Socialist Movement (London: Williams and Norgate, 1911), p. ix.
17. Leonard Woolf, 'Introduction', in Leonard Woolf (ed.), The Framework of a Lasting Peace (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1917), pp. 57-8.
18. H. N. Brailsford, 'False Road to Security', New Leader, 23 March 1923, p. 4;
19. arid 'The Other France: A Realistic Study of the Outlook', New Leader, 15 February 1924, p. 9.
20. H. N. Brailsford, Olives of Endless Age. Being a Study of this Distracted World and its Need of Unity (New York & London: Harper, 1928), ch. XIV.
21. H. N. Brailsford, After the Peace (London: Parsons, 1920), p. 32.
22. Alfred Zimmern, 'I Have Joined the Labour Party', New Leader, 15 August 1924, pp. 3-4.
23. J. A. Hobson, 'Is America Moving?', Foreign Affairs, 5(1923), p. 3.
24. C. Delisle Burns, 'British Foreign Policy - The Next Moves', Foreign Affairs, 6 July (1924), p. 9.
25. H. M. Swanwick, 'An Alternative Policy to the Draft Treaty of Mutual Assistance', Foreign Affairs, 5 March (1924), p. 171.
26. Letter from David Mitrany to William Gillies dated 15 May 1925, p. 3. James Ramsay MacDonald Papers, PRO 3069, National Archives, Kew, London.
27. Dalton's influence will be discussed in more detail in my forthcoming book International Relations Theory and the Labour Party. Certainly, the book is frequently quoted by Labour sources of the time.
28. See Hugh Dalton, Towards the Peace of Nations: A Study in International Politics (London: Routledge, 1928).
29. David Mitrany, The Problem of International Sanctions (London: Humphrey Milford & OUP, 1925).
30. Philip Noel Baker, Disarmament (London: Hogarth, 1926);
31. and The Geneva Protocol (London: King, 1925).
32. William Arnold-Forster, Arbitrate! Arbitrate! Arbitrate! The Case, for All-Inclusive Pacific Settlement of International Disputes (London: Labour Party, 1927).
33. James T. Shotwell, War as an Instrument of National Policy and its Renunciation in the Pact of Paris (London: Constable, 1929).
34. F. E. Smith, 'Idealism in International Polities', in William Camp, The Glittering Prizes: A Biographical Study of F. E. Smith First Earl of Birkenhead (London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1960), pp. 207-8.
35. Smith, 'Idealism in International Politics', pp. 208-10.
36. Ibid., 'Idealism in International Politics', p. 213.
37. Ibid., 'Idealism in International Politics', p. 216.
38. H. N. Brailsford, 'A Socialist Foreign Policy', in Christopher Addison et al., Problems of a Socialist Government (London: Victor Gollancz, 1933), pp. 285-6.
39. Maurice Bourquin (od.), Collective Security: A Record of the Seventh and Eighth International Studies Conference, Paris 1934-London 1935 (Paris: International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, 1936), pp. 458-9.
40. E. H. Carr, International Relations Between the Two World Wars (1919-1939) (London: Macmillan, 1948), p. 5. Originally written in 1937.
41. Salvador de Madariaga, The World's Design (London: Allen arid Unwin, 1938), pp. 54, 82-5, 125.
42. A. L. Rowse, 'The End of an Epoch', in A. L. Rowse, The End of an Epoch: Reflections on Contemporary History (London: Macmillan, 1947), p. 69.
43. Michael Foot, 'Introduction', in Konni Zilliacus, The Mirror of the Past (London: Victor Gollancz, 1944), pp. 13-4.
44. Leonard Woolf, The International Post-War Settlement (London: Fabian Publications and Victor Gollancz, 1944), p. 6.
45. H. N. Brailsford, for example, preferred to refer to his tradition of thought as socialist. See his contributions to Henry Brinton (ed.), Does Capitalism Cause War? (London: H & E. R. Brinton, 1935), pp. 18, 37, 40-1.
46. A. L. Rowse, The Prospects of the Labour Party', in Rowso, The End of an Epoch, p. 112.
47. E. H. Carr, The Twenty Years' Crisis (London: Macmillan, 1939), especially pp. 278, 282.
48. E. H. Carr, Nationalism and After (London: Macmillan, 1945), pp. 47-74.
49. Ashworth, Creating International Studies, ch. 5;
50. Wilson, International Theory of Leonard Woolf, ch. 2.
51. John H. Herz, Political Realism and Political Idealism: A Study in Theories and Realities (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1951);
52. Herbert Butterfield, 'The Scientific Versus the Moralistic Approach in International Affairs' International Affairs, 27 (1951), pp. 411-22;
53. Arnold Wolfers, 'The Pole of Power and the Pole of Indifference', in James N. Rosenau (ed.), International Politics and Foreign Policy: A Reader in Research and Theory (New York: Free Press, 1969), pp. 176-9;
54. Martin Griffiths, Realism, Idealism and International Politics (London: Routledge, 1992).
55. Socialist Union, Socialism and Foreign Policy (London: Book House, 1953), especially ch. 1.
56. Hodley Bull, The Theory of International Politics', 1919-1969', in Brian Porter (ed.), The Aberystwyth Papers: International Politics 1919-1969 (London: Oxford University Press, 1972), pp. 33-6.
57. Kenneth W. Thompson, 'Idealism and Realism: Beyond the Great Debate', British Journal of International Studies, 3(1977), pp. 199-209.
58. Trevor Taylor, 'Utopianism', in Steve Smith (ed.), International Relations: British and American Approaches (Oxford: Blackwell, 1985), pp. 92-107;
59. John Vasquez, The Power of Power Politics: A Critique (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 13-19.
60. J. Ann Tickner, 'Hans Morgenthau's Principles of Political Realism: A Feminist Reformulation', Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 17(1988), p. 433.
61. A. J. R. Groom and William C. Olson, International Relations Then and Now: Origins and Trends in Interpretation (London: HarperCollins, 1991), pp. 73-4.
62. Ibid., International Relations Then and Now: Origins and Trends in Interpretation p. 69.
63. Ibid., International Relations Then and Now: Origins and Trends in Interpretation p. 93.
64. Michael Banks, 'The Inter-Paradigm Debate', in Margot Light and A. J. R. Groom, International Relations: A Handbook of Current Theory (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1985), p. 10;
65. James E. Dougherty and Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Contending Theories of International Relations. A Comprehensive Survey (New York: Harper and Row, 1990), pp. 6-7;
66. Steve Smith, 'Paradigm Dominance in International Relations: The Development of International Relations as a Social Science', Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Summer (1987), p. 192;
67. James Der Derian, 'Introduction: Critical Investigations', in James Der Derian (ed.), International Theory: Critical Investigations (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995), p. 1.
68. Steve Smith, 'The Self-Images of a Discipline: A Genealogy of International Relations Theory', in Ken Booth and Steve Smith (eds.), International Relations Theory Today (Oxford: Polity, 1995), p. 14.
69. Wilson, International Theory of Leonard Woolf, p. 20.
70. All of these writers, at one time or another, have been singled out as idealists, although the only one to corne under sustained attack from Carr was Angell. Woolf was not mentioned by Carr, but he did write two criticisms of The Twenty Years' Crisis [Leonard Woolf, 'Utopia and Reality', Political Quarterly, 11 (1940), pp. 167-82,
71. and Leonard Woolf, The War for Peace (London: Routledge, 1940)].
72. All but Brailsford appear in Long and Wilson, Thinkers of the Twenty Years' Crisis,
73. while all, including Brailsford, have featured in modern lists of idealists. I would like to stress that the following is not a refutation of Carr's thesis per se, but rather a challenge to those who, since Carr, have used some or all of Carr's categories to describe an 'idealist paradigm' that is meant to have included these five writers. For more detailed recent analyses of Carr's work, see Jones, E. H. Carr
74. and Haslam, The Vices of Integrity.
75. This was the main theme in his prewar classic The Great Illusion (quoted above n. 2). He returned to this theme regularly. See, for example, his summary of his ideas in Norman Angell, 'The International Anarchy', in Leonard Woolf (ed.), The Intelligent Man's Way to Prevent War (London: Victor Gollancz, 1933), pp. 19-66.
76. Letter from David Mitrany to H. N. Brailsford, 14 September 1945; Letter from H. N. Brailsford to David Mitrany, 23 September 1945; Letter from David Mitrany to H. N. Brailsford, 25 September 1945. From the Mitrany Papers at the British Library of Political and Economic Sciences, London School of Economics.
77. H. N. Brailsford, Property or Peace? (London: Gollancz, 1934).
78. David Mitrany, The Progress of International Government (London: Allen & Unwin, 1933).
79. See, for example, Leonard Woolf, Empire and Commerce in Africa: A Study in Economic Imperialism (London: Labour Research Department arid George Allen & Unwin, 1920), especially his final chapter on the future of Africa.
80. See, for example, his popular, The League of Nations at Work (London: Nisbet, 1927).
81. See Noel Baker, Geneva Protocol. For Noel Baker's work on the Labour Party's policy on war aims during the Second World War, see the papers of the Labour Party International Sub-Committee of the National Executive for September-October 1939 and September 1943-April 1944, in the William Gillies Papers, Labour Party Archives, John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, UK. See also the correspondence between Noel Baker (or 'Noel-Baker' as he was signing himself by then) and Hugh Dalton in the Hugh Dalton Papers at the British Library of Political and Economic Sciences, London School of Economics, Dalton IIE 7/10.
82. See his The Fruits of Victory (New York: Garland 1972), especially pp. 61-70 and 300-1.
83. Originally published in 1921. See also his Preface to Peace: A Guide for the Plain Man (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1935).
84. See Norman Angell, The Public Mind. Its Disorders: Its Explanation (London: Noel Douglas, 1926).
85. See his contributions to Henry Brinton (ed.), Does Capitalism Cause War? (Maidstone: H & E. R. Brinton, 1935), pp. 13-19, 37-41. This was an edited collection of an exchange of letters in The New Statesman between 9th February and the 6th April 1935.
86. David Mitrany, A Working Peace System: An Argument for the Functionl Development of International Organisation (London: Royal Institute for International Affairs/Oxford University Press, 1943).
87. Hans J. Morgenthau, 'Introduction', in David Mitrany, A Working Peace System (Chicago, IL: Quadrangle, 1966).
88. See the argument in Ashworth, Creating International Studies, pp. 38-41 and ch. 4.
89. Noel Baker, Geneva Protocol.
90. Noel Baker, League of Nations at Work, pp. 128-34.
91. See Wilson's discussion on this point in International Theory of Leonard Woolf, pp. 73-4.
92. Leonard Woolf, 'Utopia and Reality', Political Quarterly, 11 (1940), pp. 167.
93. See the discussion of his argument from The Great Illusion in Ashworth, Creating International Studies, pp. 112-3.
94. See especially his The Public Mind, quoted above.
95. Leonard Woolf, The War for Peace (London: Routledge, 1940).
96. Ashworth, Creating International Studies, ch. 4.
97. Sec his analysis of British foreign policy in H. N. Brailsford, The Tory Policy of Peace', The Political Quarterly, 9 July-September 9(1938), pp. 325-33.
98. League of Nations at Work, especially 131.
99. Lorna Lloyd, 'Philip Noel Baker and Peace Through Law', in Long and Wilson (eds.), Thinkers of the Twenty Years' Crisis, pp. 47-8.
100. Rowse, The End of an Epoch, p292.
101. Jones, E. H. Carr, is particularly useful in understanding this side of Carr.
102. There is not enough space here to do justice to the American debates of the period, but a good analysis is provided by Brian Schmidt in The Political Discourse of Anarchy: A Disciplinary History of International Relations (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1998).
103. Pooled security was the commonly used phrase before the mid-thirties. Collective security only became the preferred term in the last six years of peace. See A. J. P. Taylor, The Troublemakers: Dissent over Foreign Policy 1792-1939 (London: Panther, 1969), pp. 163-4. Taylor's conclusions about the reason for this change are misleading, however, arid he ignores the common use of the older and alternative phrase of pooled security.
104. The British Labour Party, for example, cautiously supported the Locarno treaties, with Leonard Woolf and the bulk of the membership of the Advisory Committee on International Questions being particularly supportive. George Lansbury was opposed, as were many left-wingers.
105. For example, H. N. Brailsford wrote of 'the differences that divide Socialists from Sir Norman Angell'. In Henry Brinton (ed.), Does Capitalism Cause War?, p. 13.
106. For the unpopularity of the League amongst the British left up to 1924, arid the subsequent change of heart in the mid-1920s, see Henry R. Winkler, Paths Not Taken. British Labour and International Policy in the 1920s (Chapel Hill, NE: University of North Carolina Press, 1994).
107. Compare the argument in H. N. Brailsford, After the Peace (London: Leonard Parsons, 1920),
108. with H. N. Brailsford, Olives of Endless Age (New York: Harper, 1928), especially ch. 3.
109. Leonard Woolf, 'Memorandum on the Attitude which the Party Should Adopt to Proposed Reforms of the League', Labour Party Advisory Committee on International Questions memo, no. 468, July 1936. Labour Party Archives, John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, UK.
110. See, for example, Ashworth, Creating International Studies, p. 125.
111. Zilliacus, Mirror of the Past, pp. 281-2.
112. See for example the panel entitled 'Why it Matters to You. Are you a Liberal or a Realist?', in W. Raymond Duncan, Barbara Jancar-Webster and Bob Switky, World Politics in the 21st Century, 3rd edn. (New York: Pearson, 2006), p. 42.