A. Briggs - Patterns of Peacemaking

The International Library of Sociology

PATTERNS OF PEACEMAKING

The International Library of Sociology

POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY

In 18 Volumes

PATTERNS OF PEACEMAKING

by

DAVID THOMSON, E. MEYER and A. BRIGGS

First published in 1945

by Routledge, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd

Reprinted in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Transferred to Digital Printing 2007

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

1945 David Thomson, E. Meyer and A. Briggs

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

The publishers have made every effort to contact authors/copyright holders of the works reprinted in The International Library of Sociology. This has not been possible in every case, however, and we would welcome correspondence from those individuals/companies we have been unable to trace.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Patterns of Peacemaking

ISBN 0-415-17551-8

Political Sociology: 18 Volumes

ISBN 0-415-17820-7

The International Library of Sociology: 274 Volumes

ISBN 0-415-17838-X

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent

This book began, at the end of 1943, as an attempt to make a systematic survey and analysis, as objective as possible, of the tendencies most likely to govern peacemaking. The authors intended to avoid making any specific recommendations of their own as to how the labours of peacemaking should be undertaken, and to confine themselves to a study of how they were likely to be undertaken in the light of past experience, contemporary proposals, and the present alignment of political powers in the world. But in the process of study, discussion and writing, all three authors arrived at certain more definite conclusions. At the same time, the course of events and the increasingly clear trend of official policies seemed to justify more positive assertions and more constructive suggestions than had at first been thought possible. The book, therefore, takes its present hybrid form: of systematic analysis carried forward to certain statements and even recommendations. It is hoped that it has gained and not lost thereby: and that no conclusions have been pressed further than both the analysis and events themselves justify. If these hopes be realized, the book may be more than a mere record of the movement of opinion during the closing phases of the Second World War.

It has been found convenient to use certain words which have acquired well-established usage in political and sociological writing: such as patterns of settlement, climate of opinion, Utopian ideas, and the rest. The authors realize both the dangers and the temptations of such metaphors and jargon. But they have tried to give them precise and consistent meanings, and to avoid their abuse. Their justification is the difficulty of finding terms which more scientifically describe the conceptions involved.

There are very obvious difficulties and handicaps in the writing of such a book amid the tempo of modern affairs. To keep pace perfectly with events, and to avoid being out of date even before publication, is a superhuman labour worthy of Sisyphus. To devote equal attention to the background of peacemaking in Great Britain, the United States, Soviet Russia, and all the other members of the United Nations would lead to a book of intolerable bulk: therefore the spotlight has been focused more on Great Britain than on any other. The authors dare not hope to have succeeded in every detail. But it is hoped that the approach has been broad enough, the method objective enough, to make the book not entirely worthless after that time-lag between writing and publication which is now inevitable for even the kindest and most efficient of publishers. A postscript does something to alleviate this difficulty.

PATTERNS OF PEACEMAKING

GETTING WHAT WE WANT

The victory of the United Nations over the forces of tyranny in Europe and Asia brings to all believers in the ideas and ideals of democracy the opportunity and the duty of restating those ideals in terms most appropriate to our own times. There is everywhere the determination to give them new and more effective expression than after the last world war. Two tremendous questions loom ahead. What sort of New Order do we want? And how should we set about getting it?

Much has been said and written about the first of these questions. Less has been heard of the second. But behind public discussion of both there lies, in the heart of the ordinary citizen, the haunting, cynical suspicion that he heard once before about a war to end war, the building of homes fit for heroes, and the creation of a brave new world. The high hopes of 1918 turned to ashes within twenty years, and from these ashes sprang the blazing, gesticulating Phoenix of the second world war. There lurks in the minds of our people the suspicion that the Phoenix is not such a rara avis after all: that from the rubble of London, Rotterdam and Warsaw, from the ashes of Stalingrad, Naples and Aachen, there may arise another Phoenix which is again not of their choosing. The disillusionment of the 1930s has not been forgotten. But if it be not dispelled, it may itself frustrate our present aspirations and paralyse our most strenuous efforts to make lasting peace.