Personalities, War and Diplomacy: Essays in International History

by Otte,T.G.; Otte,T.G.

• ISBN13: 9780714648187
• ISBN10: 0714648183
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-09-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

History is an old, yet constantly changing discipline. Traditionally, the interpretation of the past oscillated between two opposed poles; on the one hand, there were those who believed that events were determined not by individuals but by an impersonal process (though, of course, there were contending views of what that process is, or how it unravels), and on the other hand, there were those who stressed the contingent aspects of politics and history, and hence the impact of personalities. Neither of these two concepts of history is new. Combining essays on the 'personality dimension' in 19th and 20th century international history, this book places in a proper historical perspective the impact of individual diplomats, politicians and military strategists on foreign policy-making as well as the role of perception in the policy-making process.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii	(2)
Notes on Contributors	ix	(2)
Preface	xi
Roy Jenkins
Introduction: Personalities and Impersonal Forces in History	1	(13)
T. G. Otte
Eyre Crowe and British Foreign Policy: A Cognitive Map	14	(24)
T. G. Otte
Field Marshal Conrad von Hotzendorf and the Outbreak of the First World War	38	(28)
John H. Maurer
The British Official Mind and the United States, 1919-42	66	(15)
Erik Goldstein
Gustav Stresemann: Liberal or Realist?	81	(24)
Jonathan Wright
Viscount Cecil, Winston Churchill and the Geneva Naval Conference of 1927: Si vis pacem para pacem vs si vis pacem para bellum	105	(22)
Tadashi Kuramatsu
Sir Robert Vansittart and Spain, 1931-1941	127	(31)
Glyn Stone
The Myth of Leadership: Dwight Eisenhower and the Quest for Liberation	158	(28)
W. Scott Lucas
The Diplomacy of Junktim: Paul-Henri Spaak and European Integration	186	(27)
Pierre-Henri Laurent
Defence Sufficiency and the Military-Political Conception of Nikita Khrushchev	213	(21)
Sergei N. Khrushchev
John F. Kennedy, Nuclear Tests and the Politics of Cold War Foreign Policy	234	(20)
Kendrick Oliver
The Limits of Personal Influence: Harold Macmillan and Anglo-French Relations, 1960-1963	254	(29)
Constantine A. Pagedas
Index	283