The British Left in the Problems of Peace Lectures, 1926–38

The proceedings of the Problems of Peace conferences held annually at the League of Nations headquarters in Geneva from 1926 to 1938 included lectures from an array of ideological positions. Some contributors were from the Left, ranging from moderate liberal socialists to the more firmly anti-capitalist thinkers. Those of the latter category presented challenges to the existing international order, holding views that bore some affinities to E.H. Carr's beliefs. They were, however, unlike Carr, committed to liberal-democratic processes as a means to change. Nevertheless, in the turbulent environment of the inter-war years optimism gave way to anxiety among many on the Left. A wider division between the moderate and more radical British democratic socialists emerged. Some thinkers repositioned themselves within the broader Left. These different positions and shifts are evident in the Problems of Peace lectures, and this helps expose the limitations of Carr's binary utopianism/realism division of inter-war international thought. A weakness of the socialists in question is that the demands for change are conventional and thus undeveloped where the real have-not peoples of the empires are concerned. Nevertheless, by ignoring the lectures Carr neglected diversity and innovation in the internationalism of the British inter-war Left.Keywords: internationalistsocialistliberaldemocraticsovereignty Notes1. T. Taylor, ‘Utopianism’ in S. Smith (ed), International Relations: British and American Perspectives (Oxford, 1985), 92–107.2. L. M. Ashworth, Creating International Studies: Angell, Mitrany and the Liberal Tradition (Aldershot, 1999), 106–29; L. M. Ashworth, ‘Where are the Idealists in Interwar International Relations’, Review of International Studies, xxxii (2006), 291–308; P. Wilson, ‘The Myth of the First Great Debate’, Review of International Studies, xxiv (1998), 1–15; C. Sylvest, ‘Continuity and Change in British Liberal Internationalism, c. 1900–1930’, Review of International Studies, xxxi (2005), 263–83; B. C. Schmidt, ‘Lessons from the Past: Reassessing the Interwar Disciplinary History of International Relations’, International Studies Quarterly, xlii (1998), 433–59; C. G. Thies, ‘Progress, History and Identity in International Relations Theory: the Case of the Idealist-Realist Debate’, European Journal of International Relations, viii (1992), 147–85.3. The internationalist ideas of this democratic Left are discussed in some detail in L. M. Ashworth, International Relations and the Labour Party: Intellectuals and Policy Making From 1918–1945 (London, 2007); L. M. Ashworth, ‘Rethinking a Socialist Foreign Policy: The British Labour Party and International Relations Experts, 1918 to 1931’, International Labour and Working-Class History, lxxv (2009), 30–48; C. Sylvest, ‘Interwar Internationalism, the Labour Party, and the Historiography of International Relations’, International Studies Quarterly, xlviii (2004), 409–32.4. In a brief, one-page review of the penultimate volume Carr acknowledged that this was the twelfth in the annual series. The review consists of brief comments on the lectures, the most significant that Angell's entitled ‘How may League Principles be made Political Realities?’ does not really explain how this happens: E.H. Carr, ‘Review of Problems of Peace, Twelfth series: Geneva and the Drift to War’, International Affairs, xvii (1938), 701–2 (702).5. L. E. Ambrosius, ‘Woodrow Wilson, Alliances and the League of Nations’, The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, v (2006), 139–65.6. The Editor, ‘Introduction’ in Anon. (ed), The Problems of Peace (London, 1927), iii–viii, v–vi.7. Ibid., vii–viii.8. E. H. Carr, ‘An Autobiography’ in M. Cox (ed), E.H. Carr: A Critical Appraisal (Houndmills, 2000), xiii–xxii (xvi).9. E. H. Carr, ‘The League of Peace and Freedom: an Episode in the Quest for Collective Security’, International Affairs, xiv (1935), 837–44.10. E. H. Carr, ‘Public Opinion As a Safeguard of Peace’, International Affairs, xv (1936), 846–62 (859–60).11. A. Linklater, ‘E. H. Carr, Nationalism and the Future of the Sovereign State’ in M. Cox (ed), E. H. Carr: A Critical Appraisal (Houndmills, 2000), 234–57.12. Carr, ‘Autobiography’, xvi.13. Ibid., xvii.14. Ibid., xviii.15. Carr, Twenty Years’ Crisis, 151­–2; Evans, ‘E.H. Carr and International Relations’, 89.16. Carr, Twenty Years’ Crisis, 97.17. E. Dell, A Strange Eventful History: Democratic Socialism in Britain (London, 2000), 77–8; G. Foote, The Labour Party's Political Thought: A History. 2nd ed. (London, 1986), 158–60, 178–80.18. The Editor, ‘Introduction’, Problems of Peace. Sixth Series (London, 1932), vi; The Editor, ‘Introduction’, Problems of Peace. Seventh Series (London, 1933), vii.19. The Editor, ‘Introduction’, Problems of Peace. Sixth Series, vii.20. Anonymous, ‘Editor's Note’, Problems of Peace. Eleventh Series: The League and the Future of the Collective System (London, 1937), vii.21. F. P. Walters, ‘Introduction’, Problems of Peace. Twelfth Series: Geneva and the Drift to War (London, 1938), 1–8.22. C. W. J., ‘Introduction’, Problems of Peace. Thirteenth Series: War is not Inevitable (London, 1938).23. R. McKibbin, ‘The Economic Policy of the Second Labour Government 1929–31’, Past and Present, lxviii (1975), 95–123; R. Skidelsky, Politicians and the Slump: the Labour Government of 1929–1931. 2nd ed. (London, 1994), 334–83.24. J. Callaghan, Socialism in Britain since 1884 (Cambridge, 1990), 103–36.25. T. Dunne, ‘Theories as Weapons: E.H. Carr and International Relations’ in M. Cox (ed), E. H. Carr: A Critical Appraisal (Houndmills, 2000), 217–33, 221–3.26. E. H. Carr, The Twenty Years’ Crisis 1919–1939: An Introduction to the Study of International Relations. 2nd ed. (Houndmills, 2001 [1945]), 13.27. Ibid., 43.28. Ibid., 31.29. C. Jones, E.H. Carr and International Relations: A Duty to Lie (Cambridge, 1998), 54–60.30. H. F. Bienfait and W. E. A. van Beek, ‘Right and Left as Political Categories: an Exercise in “Not-so-Primitive” Classification’, Anthropos, xcvi (2001), 169–78.31. M. Freeden, Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach (Oxford, 1996), 75–91.32. W. H. Greenleaf, The British Political Tradition Volume Two: The Ideological Heritage (London, 1983), 103–85.33. Such thinkers are perceived as liberal internationalists in P. Rich, ‘Reinventing Peace: David Davies, Alfred Zimmern and Liberal Internationalism in Interwar Britain’, International Relations, xvi (2002), 117–33. They are however, described as liberal socialists in L. M. Ashworth, ‘The Poverty of Paradigms: Subcultures, trading Zones and the Case of Liberal Socialism in Interwar International Relations’, International Relations, xxvi (2012), 35–59.34. C. Delisle Burns, ‘Economic Causes of War’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Fourth Series (London, 1930), 86–110.35. C. Delisle Burns, ‘The Need for National and International Economic Planning’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Seventh Series (London, 1933), 264–87.36. C. Delisle Burns, ‘Authority and Force in the State System’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Eighth Series (London, 1933), 262–82.37. Ashworth, ‘The Poverty of Paradigms’, 35–59.38. E. F. Carritt, ‘Liberty and Equality’ in A. Quinton (ed), Political Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967), 127–40.39. E. F. Carritt, ‘The Ideological Conflict’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Thirteenth Series: War is not Inevitable (London, 1938), 178–95.40. Carritt, ‘Ideological Conflict’, 194–5.41. A Prichard, ‘What Can the Absence of Anarchism Tell Us About the History and Purpose of International Relations?’, Review of International Studies, xxxvii (2011), 1647–69.42. R. Palme Dutt, World Politics, 1918–1936 (London, 1936).43. J. Stalin, Leninism: Volume One (London, 1928), 155–6.44. R. W. Davies, ‘Carr's Changing Views of the Soviet Union’ in M. Cox (ed), E.H. Carr: A Critical Appraisal (Houndmills, 2000), 91–108, 102–3; M. Cox, ‘Introduction’ in E. H. Carr, The Twenty Years’ Crisis 1919–1939: An Introduction to the Study of International Relations, second edition (Houndmills, 2001 [1945]), xviii.45. Carr, Twenty Years’ Crisis, 18–19.46. Ibid., 19.47. Dunne, ‘Theories as Weapons’, 226­–7.48. Cox, ‘Introduction’, xvii–xxv.49. Jones, E. H. Carr, 150–4; S. Molloy, ‘Dialectics and Transformation: Exploring the International Theory of E.H. Carr’, International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, xvii (2003), 279–306, 287–8; G. Evans, ‘E.H. Carr and International Relations’, British Journal of International Studies, i (1975), 77–97, 80–2.50. P. Howe, ‘The Utopian Realism of E.H. Carr’, Review of International Studies, xx (1994), 277–97. He continued to advocate such mass democracy in 1942 in his book Conditions of Peace (London, 1942), 14–36. By the time he wrote that book, he would later concede, his views had changed. The book was ‘a sort of liberal utopia with a little socialism but very little Marxism’. See Carr ‘An Autobiography’, xix.51. P. Lamb, ‘Harold Laski (1893–1950): Political Theorist of a World in Crisis’, Review of International Studies, xxv (1999), 329–42; P. Lamb, Harold Laski: Problems of Democracy, the Sovereign State and International Society (New York, 2004).52. P. Wilson, The International Theory of Leonard Woolf: a Study in Twentieth-Century Idealism (New York, 2003).53. L. Woolf, ‘Introduction’ in L. Woolf (ed), The Intelligent Man's Way to Prevent War (London, 1933), 17.54. Ibid., 16–17.55. H. J. Laski, ‘The Economic Foundations of the Peace’ in L. Woolf (ed), The Intelligent Man's Way to Prevent War (London, 1933), 501.56. A. Zimmern, ‘The Development of the International Mind’ in Anon. (ed), The Problems of Peace (London, 1927), 1–17.57. A. Zimmern, ‘Europe and the World Community’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Sixth Series (London, 1932), 114–33.58. A. Zimmern, ‘The Influence of Public Opinion on Foreign Policy’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Sixth Series (London, 1929), 299–320 (312).59. See J. Morefield, ‘States Are Not People: Harold Laski on Unsettling Sovereignty, Rediscovering Democracy’, Political Research Quarterly, lviii (2005), 659–69.60. H. J. Laski, ‘International Government and National Sovereignty’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace (London, 1927), 288­–312 (289).61. Ibid., 289.62. Ibid., 300.63. Ibid., 288.64. Ibid., 301.65. Carr, Twenty Years’ Crisis, 101.66. Laski, ‘International Government’, 300.67. H. J. Laski, A Grammar of Politics (London, 1925), 587–666.68. Carr, Twenty Years’ Crisis, 92.69. Laski, Grammar of Politics, 20-21.70. H. J. Laski, ‘The Theory of an International Society’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Sixth Series (London, 1932), 188–209 (189).71. C. Sylvest, ‘Beyond the State? Pluralism and Internationalism in Early-Twentieth-Century Britain’, International Relations, xxi (2007), 67–85.72. Lamb, Harold Laski, 27–38; P. Lamb, ‘Laski's Ideological Metamorphosis’, Journal of Political Ideologies, iv (1999), 239–60.73. Laski, ‘Theory of an International Society’, 204.74. Ibid., 191.75. Ibid., 192.76. Ibid., 208.77. Ibid., 195.78. Ibid., 196.79. Ibid., 200.80. Ibid., 206.81. For discussion of Mitrany's functionalism see D. Anderson, ‘David Mitrany (1888–1975): An Appreciation of his Life and Work’, Review of International Studies, xxiv (1998), 577–92; M. F. Imber, ‘Re-Reading Mitrany: A Pragmatic Assessment of Sovereignty’, Review of International Studies, x (1984), 103–23; R. Tooze, ‘The Progress of International Functionalism’, British Journal of International Studies, iii (1977), 210–17; Ashworth, Creating International Studies.82. Carr, Conditions of Peace, 246–74.83. J. Morefield, ‘Harold Laski on the Habits of Imperialism’, Proceedings of the British Academy, clv (2009), 213–37.84. M. Newman, Harold Laski: a Political Biography (Houndmills, 1993), 110–21.85. G. Rosen, ‘Herbert Morrison’ in K. Jefferys (ed), Labour Forces: From Ernie Bevin to Gordon Brown (London, 2002), 25–40, 30–33.86. P. Noel-Baker, ‘The Future of the Collective System’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Tenth Series: Anarchy or World Order (London, 1936), 178­–98, 179.87. N. Angell, ‘Pacifism is Not Enough’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Ninth Series: Pacifism is Not Enough (London, 1935), 128–49; N. Angell, ‘How May League Principles be Made Political Realities?’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Twelfth Series: Geneva and the Drift to War (London, 1938), 133–45. N. Angell, ‘Current Criticisms of the Peace Front’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Twelfth Series: Geneva and the Drift to War (London, 1938), 199–207.88. Angell, ‘Current Criticisms’, 206–7.89. M. Ceadel, ‘The Founding Text of International Relations? Norman Angell's Seminal yet Flawed The Great Illusion (1909–1938)’, Review of International Studies, xxxvii (2011), 1671–93 (1676).90. Carr, Twenty Years’ Crisis, 51.91. Ibid., 77.92. H. Morrison, ‘A New Start with the League of Nations’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Eleventh Series: the League and the Future of the Collective System (London, 1937), 5–27 (26).93. Ibid., 6.94. Ibid., 8–9.95. G. W. Egerton, ‘Collective Security as Political Myth: Liberal Internationalism and the League of Nations in Politics and History’, The International History Review’, v (1983), 496–524.96. Carr, Twenty-Years’ Crisis, 8, 31, 105.97. Carr, ‘Public Opinion’, 859–60.98. Morrison, ‘A New Start’, 14.99. Ibid., 14–16.100. Ibid., 26–7.101. Ibid., 24–7.102. Ibid., 23.103. N. Thomas-Symonds, Attlee: A Life in Politics (London, 2010), 69–71.104. C. R. Attlee, ‘The Socialist View of Peace’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Ninth Series: Pacifism is not Enough (London, 1935), 96–127.105. Ibid., 96.106. M. Stohl and M. Chamberlain, ‘Alternative Futures for Peace Research’, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, xvi (1972), 523–30.107. Attlee, ‘Socialist View of Peace’, 96.108. Ibid., 97.109. Ibid., 110.110. Ibid., 114–16.111. Ibid. 124–7.112. Thomas-Symonds, Attlee, 64.113. J. Schneer, ‘Hopes Deferred or Shattered: The British Labour Left and the Third Force Movement, 1945–49’, The Journal of Modern History, lvi (1984), 197–226.114. A. Potts, Zilliacus: A Life for Peace and Socialism (London, 2002), 140–1.115. M. K. Zilliacus, ‘The Nature and Working of the League of Nations’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Fourth Series (London, 1930), 1–21, 4.116. Ibid., 18.117. K. Zilliacus, ‘The League and the World To-day’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Thirteenth Series: War is not Inevitable (London, 1938), 257–84 (257).118. Potts, Zilliacus, 57.119. Zilliacus, ‘The League and the World To-day’, 257–8.120. Ibid., 275–6.121. Ibid., 278.122. Ibid., 281.123. Ibid., 282.124. P. Lamb, ‘Henry Noel Brailsford's Radical International Relations Theory’, International Relations, xxv (2011), 477–96 (490).125. C. Delisle Burns, ‘Nationalism and Internationalism’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Second Series (London, 1928), 336–60; C. Delisle Burns, ‘The British Commonwealth and the League of Nations’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Third Series (London, 1929), 208–41.126. H. N. Brailsford, ‘The Rise of Nationalism in the East’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Second Series (London, 1928), 318–35.127. R. Abrahamsen, ‘Postcolonialism’ in M. Griffiths, (ed), International Relations Theory for the Twenty-First Century (Abingdon, 2007), 111–22; S. N. Grovogui, ‘Postcolonialism’ in T. Dunne, M. Kurki and S. Smith (eds), International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity. 2nd ed. (Oxford, 2010), 238–56.128. Brailsford, ‘Rise of Nationalism’, 329–32.129. Ibid., 335.130. Carr, Twenty Years’ Crisis, 77.131. Seán Molloy, ‘Dialectics and Transformation’, 286, 287, 299, 305.132. Brailsford, ‘Rise of Nationalism’, 318–24.133. J. Lewin, ‘Leonard Barnes, the Man and his Books’, African Affairs, lxxiv (1975), 483–4.134. L. Barnes, ‘The Future of Imperialism’ in Anon. (ed), Problems of Peace. Eleventh Series: the League and the Future of the Collective System (London, 1937), 180–97 (188).135. Ibid., 185.136. Ibid., 186–93.137. Ibid., 193.138. Ibid., 194.139. Carr, ‘Autobiography’, xviii–xix

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