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Repairing the entente cordiale And The New Diplomacy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Alan Cassels
Alan Cassels
Affiliation:
McMaster University, Ontario
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Extract

At the close of World War I two schools of thought about the future conduct of international relations emerged into plain view. On the one hand, the traditionalists presumed that the principles and practices of pre-1914 diplomacy could and should be sustained. This implied a routine of continual competition among the sovereign nation states, the anarchy of which was mitigated only by the collective fear of hegemony by one state (the mechanism of the balance of power) and by a sense of belonging to a common civilization (the old Concert of Europe). Tacitly accepted as the final arbiter of vital questions was the instrument of war. On the other hand, the First World War had provided ample grounds for a swingeing critique of Realpolitik when practised in an age of mass armies and technological warfare.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , March 1980 , pp. 133 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

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