A Turning Point in History

Bibliographic Data

ID3282281
AuthorsArnold J Toynbee (corresponding author)
Year1939
Volume17
Issue2
Pages305
Publication date1939-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueForeign Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0015-7120 • E-ISSN: 2327-7793
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/20028919
OpenAlexW2547186178
LanguageEN
Citations received8

British standpoint must first ask whether the line taken by Great Britain in 1938 marks a serious departure from the traditional line of British foreign policy. The policy of Great Britain in the past towards Europe has been, like that of the United States, to confine her intervention in Continental affairs to the minimum compatible with her own na tional interests as she sees them. The practical application of this fundamentally identical policy is, of course, governed by each country's particular geographical situation. The minimum to which the United States can safely reduce her intervention in Europe cannot be even approximated by an island that is sepa rated from the Continent by the mere breadth of the Channel rather than by the Atlantic. This difference has always com pelled British isolationism to stop far short of American isola tionism in practice. If British isolation from the Continent has been relatively incomplete in the past, this difference between Great Britain's and America's respective situations is accentuated at the present time, when the Channel is no longer, while the Atlantic still is, an effective barrier against air attack. In the past, what was the typical Continental situation in which the British Government and people felt themselves con strained to play a part in Continental affairs? The policy of Great Britain towards Louis XIV, Napoleon and William II seems to show that she has generally taken active steps, sooner or later, to join in resisting the domination of Europe by a single Power when there has seemed to be a serious probability that this Power would use its Continental predominance in order to threaten the inde pendence of the British Isles and the security of British interests overseas. This qualification of the main statement is important, because there have been cases in which Great Britain has tolerated

Aesthetics · Economics · Geometry · Keynesian economics · Period (music) · Point (geometry) · Political science · Turning point · History · Mathematics · Military and Defense Studies · Philosophy · Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics · Scottish History and National Identity

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