20 Years Crisis 1919-1939 (Paperback)

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PART ONE The Science of International Politics Chapter 1 The Beginnings of a Science The science of international politics is in its infancy. Down to 1914, the conduct of international relations was the concern of persons professionally engaged in it. In democratic countries, foreign policy was traditionally regarded as outside the scope of party politics; and the representative organs did not feel themselves competent to exercise any close control over the mysterious operations of foreign offices. In Great Britain, public opinion was readily aroused if war occurred in any region traditionally regarded as a sphere of British interest, or if the British navy momentarily ceased to possess that margin of superiority over potential rivals which was then deemed essential. In continental Europe, conscription and the chronic fear of foreign invasion had created a more general and continuous popular awareness of international problems. But this awareness found expression mainly in the labour movement, which from time to time passed somewhat academic resolutions against war. The constitution of the United States of America contained the unique provision that treaties were concluded by the President" by and with the advice and consent of the Senate ." But the foreign relations of the United States seemed too parochial to lend any wider significance to this exception. The more picturesque aspects of diplomacy had a certain news value. But nowhere, whether in universities or in wider intellectual circles, was there organised study of current international affairs. War was still regarded mainly as the business of soldiers; and the corollary of this was that international politicswere the business of diplomats. There was no general desire to take the conduct of international affairs out of the hands of the professionals or even to pay serious and systematic attention to what they were doing. The war of 1914-18 made an end of the view that war is a matter which affects only professional soldiers and, in so doing, dissipated the corresponding impression that international politics could safely be left in the hands of professional diplomats. The campaign for the popularisation of international politics began in the English-speaking countries in the form of an agitation against secret treaties, which were attacked, on insufficient evidence, as one of the causes of the war. The blame for the secret treaties should have been imputed, not to the wickedness of the governments, but to the indifference of the peoples. Everybody knew that such treaties were concluded. But before the war of 1914 few people felt any curiosity about them or thought them objectionable., The agitation against them was, however, a fact of immense importance. It was the first symptom of the demand for the popularisation of international politics and heralded the birth of a new science." Purpose and A Analysis in Political Science" The science of international politics has, then, come into being in response to a popular demand. It has been created to serve a purpose and has, in this respect, followed the pattern of other sciences. At first sight, this pattern may appear illogical. Our first business, it will be said, is to collect, classify and analyse our facts and draw our inferences; and we shall then be ready to investigate the purpose to which our facts and our deductions can be put.The processes of the human mind do not, however, appear to develop in this logical order. The human mind works, so- to speak, backwards. Purpose, which should logically follow analysis, is required to give it both its initial impulse and its direction. "If society has a technical need," wrote Engels, "it serves as a greater spur to the progress of science than do ten universities." 2 The first extant text-book of geometry "lays down an aggregate of practical rules designed to solve concrete problems: 'rule for measuring a round fruitery'; 'rule for laying out a field' 'computation of the fodder consumed by geese and oxen'" Reason, says Kant, must approach nature "not . . . in the character of a pupil, who listens to all that his master chooses to tell him, but in that of a judge, who compels the witnesses to reply to those questions which he himself thinks fit to propose"2 "We cannot study even stars or rocks or atoms," writes a modern sociologist, "without being somehow determined, in our modes of systematisation, in the prominence given to one or another part of our subject, in the form of the 9 questions we ask and attempt to answer, by direct and human interests." 3 It is the purpose of promoting health which creates medical science, and the purpose of building bridges which creates the science of engineering. Desire to cure the sicknesses of the body politic has given its impulse and its inspiration to political science. Purpose, whether we are conscious of it or not, is a condition of thought; and thinking for thinking's sake is as abnormal and barren as the miser's Accumulation of money for its own sake." The wish is father to the thought" is a perfectly exact description ofthe origin of normal human thinking. If this is true of the physical sciences, it is true of political science in a far more intimate sense. In the physical sciences, the distinction between the investigation of facts and the purpose to which the facts are to be put is not only theoretically valid, but is constantly observed in practice. The laboratory worker engaged in investigating the causes of cancer may have been originally inspired by the purpose of eradicating the disease. But this purpose is in the strictest sense irrelevant to the investigation and separable from it. His conclusion can be nothing more than a true report on facts. It cannot help to make the facts other than they are; for the facts exist independently of what anyone thinks about them. In the political sciences, which are concerned with human behavior, there are no such facts.

4 Reviews 5 star:  (4) 4 star:    (0) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 5.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   5 of 5 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars The Twenty Years' Crisis, 3 Dec 2002 By A Customer This review is from: The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919-1939 (Paperback) This book can be summed up in one word, "elegent". The argument put forward by Carr is as important today as it was in 1939. He mercilessly cuts through Inter-war Idealism and lays its many flaws open for the reader to see. Carr then moves on to put forward his theory of International Relations which ultimately evolved into the Realist school of thought (which arguably is still to this day the most important school of thought in International Relations). If this was all Carr did then his book would be a masterpiece. However he does more and in my opinion achieves more than any other theorist from the realist school of thought. Although he criticises Inter-war Idealism he is still wise enough to accept that it does have important ideals that we should strive for in International Relations. Therefore The Twenty Years Crisis can in some ways be seen as a bridgeing book that takes the best aspects from Inter-war Idealism and joins them to his Realist theory. This is why I believe the book can be described as elegent and why any serious student of International Relations should read this book. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   2 of 2 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Concise and brilliant but with flaws like all people and books, 9 Jun 2006 By  Mr. Duncan Macfarlane (Glasgow) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This review is from: The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919-1939 (Paperback) This book is only around 200 pages long but expresses exactly what the author meant concisely and with style. While it has been seen as a realist attack on idealism Carr actually sees realism and idealism as two concepts - the first epitomised by the bureaucrat who takes existing power structures into account in decision making and sees the differences between each case but has no interest in changing the system and no motivation to , the second epitomised by philosophers like Woodrow Wilson who are concerned only with the ideal they wish to achieve, treat every case the same as one to be changed to the ideal and don't pay enough attention to how they can get from the existing power structure to the new one they aspire to create. Carr says pure realism would lead to stagnation with no-one having the motivation to make any change for better or worse - while pure idealism will always fail to achieve its aims because of its utopianism. His solution is a balance between the two - having ideals to aim at but also taking into account existing power stuctures and thinking about how they can be changed to achieve ideals. His analysis of the liberal theory of 'the harmony of interests' is interesting and pretty much an attempt to apply Marx's ideas of the 'false consciousness' of the 'proletariat' to international politics to explain why governments of countries harmed by the existing system often believe it is in their interests as much as the dominant states' interests - and why dominant states end up believing that what is in their interest is in every country's interest despite the inevitable conflicts of interest in reality. The flaw in his argument is to personify states and assume that equality among states is the same as equality among individual people to the extent that he believed Germany and Italy should be allowed to have European and North African empires to match the British and French empires as a means of avoiding war. This ignored the obvious unfairness and brutality of all empires towards the people of their colonies. Carr's advocacy of a policy of appeasement also led to many shunning him at the time he wrote 'The Twenty Years' Crisis' and even today. To be fair to Carr the holocaust was not public knowledge in Britain in 1939. It's impossible to know what he would have written had he known about it - but very possible that it would have changed his mind. His main point was that the status quo suited the countries which won the first world war and imposed an international system which benefitted them - free trade being 'the paradise of the economically strong' but not of countries with weaker economies which could not compete in it. It might well be that if this unrestricted free trade regime hadn't been imposed the great depression and the surge in support for fascism and communism caused by mass unemployment could have been avoided. Few if any people or books are perfect and 'The Twenty Years' Crisis' remains a masterpiece and relevant to this day despite any flaws in it or E.H. Carr. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   2 of 3 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Foundational Text on IR, 5 Nov 2001 By A Customer Edward Carrs tretise is the foundational text for anyone studying IR from a western perspective. Cars gives the philosophical foundations behind the different schools of thought in IR academia. A must for IR stduents. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 4 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars genius an IR bible for all students and faculty alike short, easy to follow and very descriptive of the realpolitik that defines the world today, whether we like it or not... Read more Published on 4 Jun 2007 by S. Mcglinchey Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 4 customer reviews...

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