Sir Harold Nicolson and International Relations The Practitioner As Theorist

by Drinkwater, Derek

• ISBN13: 9780199273850
• ISBN10: 0199273855
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-04-21
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Sir Harold Nicolson (1886-1968) is well known as a diarist, man of letters, diplomatic historian, gardener, and broadcaster. Nicolson's bestselling diaries and letters, his many biographies, including the highly acclaimed official life of King George V, and his numerous essays and broadcastshave made him, in the words of his friend and fellow MP Robert Bernays, an international figure of the 'second degree'. Yet there was more to this urbane man than his finely observed diary, stylish writing, and Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent, the joint creation of Nicolson and his wife, the writer V. Sackville-West. He also produced a rich and ambitious corpus of writing on the theory and practice ofinternational relations. Nicolson's aristocratic background and upbringing in a diplomatic household, followed by an Oxford classical education and twenty years in diplomacy, combined to forge his distinctive philosophy of international affairs. As a young attache in Constantinople before the GreatWar, and in Whitehall during the conflict, at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, and en poste in Persia and Germany throughout the 1920s, Nicolson was ideally placed to observe the maelstrom of international politics. As an anti-appeasement and wartime MP (1935-1945), he became a highly regardedauthority on international relations. During and after World War II, he turned his mind to the issues of European integration, world government, and the ultimate possibility of global peace. Nicolson has been the subject of two fine biographies. This is the first study of his contribution to international thought. He emerges from it as an important international thinker, alongside theorists as diverse as E. H. Carr and Leonard Woolf. Nicolson's international thought contains elements of realism and idealism, while retaining a distinctivecharacter and a breadth and consistency that render it unique.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xv
Note on the Author	xvi
International theorist
`Sage of Sissinghurst'	1	(4)
The Western diplomatic tradition	5	(4)
A theorist in his time	9	(2)
International and political theory	11	(6)
Diplomat
Father and son	17	(3)
Peacemaking and a new world	20	(2)
Home and abroad	22	(3)
Man of letters and MP	25	(7)
Diplomatic reflection and diaries	32	(5)
Liberal realism
Oxford and the classics	37	(5)
The classical canon	42	(5)
A `middle course'	47	(7)
Continuity or departure?	54	(7)
International order
Imperium to dominion	61	(3)
The elements of foreign policy	64	(6)
National character and prestige	70	(4)
The balance of power	74	(3)
Nation-states and the international idea	77	(4)
Principle and practice	81	(8)
Diplomacy
`Theory' and `shape'	89	(5)
The ideal diplomat	94	(2)
Tribal times to golden age	96	(6)
Old and new forms	102	(6)
National diplomatic styles	108	(3)
The twentieth century and after	111	(1)
Liberal realism reaffirmed	112	(5)
European security, 1919--39
`Dangerously angry' and `dangerously afraid'	117	(8)
The spirit of Locarno	125	(4)
Hitler and the furor teutonicus	129	(4)
A resurgent Italy	133	(3)
`Collective defence' and the League of Nations	136	(11)
`The Foreign Office mind'	147	(14)
Federalism and peace
Pan-Europa or federal union?	161	(8)
The new Europe	169	(9)
Forms of integration	178	(7)
World commonwealth	185	(8)
A slow growth	193	(5)
The creation of peace	198	(5)
Practice and theory
Stealing a march on power	203	(3)
Prophecy and patience	206	(7)
Bibliography
Sir Harold Nicolson	213	(7)
Other works	220	(19)
Index	239