The International Theory of Leonard Woolf

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Alsoin the SeriesInrernationalism and Nationalism in European Political T hought

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The International Theory ofLeonard Woolf:

A Study in Twentieth-CenturyIdealism

Peter Wilson

THE INTERNATIONAL THEORY OF LEONARD WOOlf

© Peter Wilson, 2003 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003 978-0-312-29473-1

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ISBN 978-1-349-38783-0 ISBN 978-1-4039-7373-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781403973733

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wilson, Peter (Peter Colin) The international theory of Leonard Woolf: a study in twentieth-century idealism/by Peter Wilson.

p. em. (Palgrave series in the history of international thought) Includes bibliographical references.

1. International relations-Philosophy. 2. Idealism-History-20th century. 3. World politics 19191932. 4. Woolf, Leonard, 1880-1969-Contributions in international relations. I. Title. II. Series.

JZ1305.W55 2003 327.1 '092-dc21 2003043375

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Contents

Prejace

List ofAbbreviations

LeonardSidney W00lf A Chronology ofhisLife and Works, 1880-1969

VI

Xl

XU

Chapter 1 Fabian, Internationalist, and "Interwar Idealist"

Chapter 2 What is Idealism? 11

Chapter 3 International Government : An Exposition 23

Chapter 4 International Government: Analysis and Assessment 53

Chapter 5 Imperialism: An Exposition 83

Chapter 6 Imperialism: Analysis and Assessment 115

Chapter 7 Liberal Intern ationalism, Ant icapita lism, andConsumers' Co-operation: Toward a No nsrare,Nonrnar ker Approach to InternationalEcono mic Organization 143

Chapter 8 T he Idealist Counterattack: Mr. Woolf versusProfessor Carr 177

Chapter 9 Woolf's Legacy: Ideals, Reason, and His torical Change 209

Notes

Bibliography

Index

2 19

251

265

Preface

T his book atte mpts to add to a growing body of literature that castsdoubt on the conventional image of interwar international thought.It does so through a detailed analysis of a neglected figure in the

field of International Relations (lR), Leonard Woolf. Since the publicationof E. H . Carr's seminal critique, The Twenty Years' Crisis, the interwar periodhas been almos t universally conceived as the "utopian" or "idealist" phase oflR thinking. A num ber of important studies pub lished in the last ten yearshave demons trated, however, that this simple image distorts a highly compl exreality. Though the so-called inte rwar idealists can be f.'mlted on a number ofgrounds, they were not as naive in their assumptions, as simplistic in theiranalysis, nor as uniform in their outlook as the received wisdom suggests.

Or at least they were not consis tently so. One of th e problems withanalyzing "interwar idealism" is that the writ ers often bundled under thislabel were an eclect ic and highly prolific bunch . Some were professionalstudents of the nascent subject of IR. Others were gifted amateurs, politicians,publicist s, or poli tical campaigners of on e kind or another. All had beenscarred directly or indirectly by the blow to civilization and hum anity thatwas the Great War. All were engaged in an inte llectua l strugg le to discoverhow th is grot esque event had been allowed to happ en. All, including Carrhimself, were engaged in an intel lectual and political struggle to prevent sucha tragedy ever happening again.

Such was the int ensity and sense of urgency of the time that the gapbetwee n advocacy and analysis was rarely wid e. The protagonists in thisdrama frequently assum ed differen t roles. They wrote for a varie ty ofaudi ences. T he high ly specialized IR audience for which most professionalstudents of the subject write today barely existed. Some of the best works ofthe period were written for what we wou ld now call "opinion formers ." Butmost works were wri tten for "the intelligent general reader." This type ofwriting has been, tor a number of complex reasons, regrettably squeezed outof modern academic life. Bur tho se who dedicated themselves to thinking

Preface • vii

and writi ng abo u t in tern at ional issu es in th e first half of the twentiethcentury saw it as thei r du ty, as wel l as an important p urpose, to reach abro ader audience. For this reason many of the more unsatisfacto ry works,from a contemporary profession al IR viewpoint, were writt en with a massaudience in mind.

It must also be reme mbe red tha t many of tho se associa ted with "inte rwa r

idea lism" had careers that spa nned well beyond the 1920s an d 1930s.Leonard Woolf provides a good case in po int. H e began his career as a polit­ical writer severa l years befo re the outbreak of th e 191 4 war, and was stillregularly penning art icles, reviews, and lett ers on the subj ect well into the1950s. So although he is known as an interwar th inker, it is important torecord that his int ellectual and po litical engageme n t with intern at ional issuesspa nned at least four decad es.

Given the nu mb er of different roles the pro tagonists assumed, the rangeof their concerns , their lack of profession al inhibitions, and the urgency thatdic tated much of wh at they had to say, it is no t d ifficult to represent them ina highl y parti al way, either flatt ering or unflattering , with a few carefully cho­sen examples. Carr rep resented them in a highly unfl attering way. H aving lostfaith in liberalism, he freed himself from the constraints of the Foreign Offi ce,became a pro fessor, and set about writing on e of the most successful po lemicsin the history of poli tical thought.' But in his desire to expose the hypocrisyand cant of the latest man ifestat ion of liberal thi nk ing, whi ch he cunninglylabeled "utopianism," he misrepresented the cur rent position of several of his

targets, hliling in part icular to take into account the considerabl e moveme ntin thought that often accompanies per iods of great pol itical rurbulence.r H e

also by and large adopte d a grapeshot approach , which result ed in a numberof uniurended casualt ies. It is certainly doubtful whe ther a number of figuressubseque n tly denigrat ed as idealis t-especially those of the Left such asG. D. H . Cole, J. A. Hobson , Harold Laski, D avid Mirrany, and LeonardWoolf-were actually the on es tha t Carr originally had in mind .

This volum e was begun as a University of Lon don doctoral thesis. In theknowledge that Ph .D. theses rarely ma ke good books, allied to a demandingteaching sch edule at th e L5E, the author did not stre nuously pursue publi­cation for a number of years. But encourage d by the head of steam that hasbuilt up be hind revisionist interpretations of early IR th ough t, and per­suaded by several colleagues th at a detailed study of the though t of LeonardWoolf would be a valuable addition to thi s published poo l of knowledge, hesome how stol e the nerve to throw himself back into the water, and ma ke all

the changes necessary to transform a large and in many ways technical thesisinto a readable book.

viii • Preface

Apart from some minor adjustments, the book follows the plan of thethesis. The most technical part of the thesis was a detailed analysis of the wayin which interwar idealism has been represented in ten well-known postwaraccounts, and the relation the y bear to the "original" account in The TwentyYears' Crisis. To save the reader from unnecessary tedium, and to keep thefocus on Woolf, 1 have summarized the findings of this analysis in a muchshorter chapter 2. Those wanting the full account will know where to find it.The conclusion to the volume is new. Most of the biographical material withwhich each chapter opens is new. The section in chapter 3 examining theinfluence of George Bernard Shaw's Fabianism and the Empire on Woolf isalso new. Chapter 8, which discusses Woolf's response to The Tuienty Years'Crisis, has been substantially revised and updated to take into account therecent outpouring of literature on Carr. 1 have also added a chronology ofWoolf's life and career. Apart from these, the changes made consist of theusual refining, streamlining , and polishing.

It would be foolish to pretend that Woolf was a great political thinker.He wrote several h ighly original and influential books, a brilliant novel , andan autobiography that many rate as one of the best works in that genre of thetwentieth century. Although he did emb ark on what he considered wouldbe a great work of international political theory, his defini tive statement onthe subject, his three-volume After theDeluge, was largely a failure. Woolf wasno Weber, Berlin, or Popper. The painstaking reading and rereading of textsand drafting and redrafting of drafts, which is the sinequa non of great schol­arship, was not Woolf's me tier. It is no accident that the th ird and finalvolume of his study, which he revealingly and ill-adv isedly called PrincipiaPolitica, became as it unfolded essentially an autobiography-a mode ofwriting for which Woo lf's talents turned out to be exceptionally well suited.

But the fact that he did not ascend the brightest heaven of political theo­retical invention does not mean he is not a figure of considerable importancein the history of lR . Woolf's importance for present-day stu dent s of lR isfivefold. First , he was a central figure in the early to mid-twentieth-centuryattempt to put international relations on a mo re organized , and orderly, foot­ing. He worked tirelessly both through his writings and his committee workto improve the quality of life at the international level. He was passionateabou t the need for and the practicability of international reform. Second, inhis search for a new way of doing and being at the international level he pio­neered what later became known as the funct ional approach to internationalorganization. This approach was to have a major influence on the develop­ment of the social and economic fun ction s of the UN and the process ofregion al integration in Western Europe. Third, he played a major role in

Preface • ix

und erm in ing th e moral and intellectual fou ndations o f em p ire . H estrenuously argued for the progressive granting of self-government to colo­nia l peo ples. Yet he perceptively warn ed tha t self-govern ment wou ld onlywork if it too k place within a new framework of int ernational obligation .Fourth, at a time ofgreat poli tical and personal cr isis he wrote wha t was untilrecentl y one of the few substant ial critiques of Carr's work. Altho ugh he wasan ad mi rer of Carr and had great sympathy for his unconventional left-wingviews, \Voolf was no t prepared to let the "Red Professor" get away with his

sweeping condemnation of the Leagu e and all th ose individua ls who had fortwo decades or mo re selflessly devoted the mselves to the cause of peace andinte rnational coop erat ion . One recent student of the subjec t has describedWoolf 's cr itique as "comp rehe nsive and dcvastat ing .P M arti n Wight used toadvi se his stude nts not to read The Twenty Years' Crisis wi thout \Vool f 's

"deadly reply" in The war fi r Peace.4 Fifth, as well as be ing in many ways rep­resentative of a particular strand of intern ation alist thought ("Left- Liberal"or "welfare" or "construct ive"), one that en joyed considerable support during

the interwa r period (including, paradoxically, from Carr), Wo olf is also athinker who in important ways does not fit with the convent ional image of theera. If not a test case, Woolf certa in ly provi des a good case by which thevalid ity of th is image can be judged.

In sum one might say tha t Woo lf is an interesting specime n of interwarinternationalist (and there fore "idealist'") thou ght. But he is also a man wh o

deserves serious attention in his ow n right. T his book attempts to makeamends for the neglect that his life an d wo rk has suffered for too long.

O ver the years th e book has been , in some shape or for m, in product ionI have in cu rred ma ny debts of grat itu de. It gives me great pl easure toack nowl edge the m here. Paul Taylor was instrumental in getting the projectoff the gro un d as my do cto ral supe rvisor an d was a consis tent source ofencourageme nt and sound adv ice. I have be nefited from conversations onthe sub ject with Mi chael Banks , Er ica Ben ner, M ats Berdal, Ken Booth,Elaine C hi lds, Mi chael Donelan , D avid H. Dunn, Hugh Dyer, Victoria

G lendinni ng, Christo phe r H ill, Mark H offma n, Hayo Krombach , CorneliaNa vari, Hugh M cN eal, James Mayall, Brian Porter, N icho las Rengger,H idemi Suganami , N icholas Wheeler, and the late Philip W ind sor. T he lateand great Joh n Vincent played more than a small role in gett ing me int er­ested in the histo ry of ideas an d was from the outse t positive about a de tailedstudy of an "idealist" thi nker. Denis Healey sha red with me his me mories of

working with Leo nard Woolf in the 1940s and 1950s an d provided sometyp ica lly percep tive insights. Many of my tho ug hts were forged whileworking with David Lon g on an edited book, which grew out of our shared

x • Preface

interest in early twentieth-century IR thought. He has been an invaluablesource of constructive and creative criticism. I have benefited at variouspoints of the project from the research assistance of Dominique Jacquin­Berdal, Jan-Stefan Fritz, and Nisha Shah. Archivists Leila Luedeking, NancyTurner, and Elizabeth Inglis were extremely helpful and generous with the irtime during research visits to the Library of Leonard and Virginia Woo lf(Washington State University) , the Sir Norman Angell Papers (Ball StateUniversity), and the Leonard Woo lf Papers (Un iversity ofSussex). I have alsoreceived valuable help from my secretarie s at the LSE over the past seven or

eight years, Chris Parsons and Barbara King.An earlier version of what became chapters 3 and 4 was presented to the

Briti sh International Studies Association's annual conference held at theUniversity of Newcastle in 1990. The detailed analysis on which chapter 2 isbased was presented to the Millennium 25th Anniversary Conference held atthe LSE in 1996. Various bits and pieces of "work in progress" were pre­sented between 1989 and 1995 to seminars and research workshops at theLSE, and the universities of Birmingham , Bristol, Keele, and Oxford. Thecomments, suggest ions , and criticisms received at these meetings have beeninvaluable as have those of Katerina Dalacoura, Margot Light, and parti cu­larly Spyros Economides who have read various chapters at various stages ofthe ir being.

Parts of chapters 1, 3, and 4 were published as "Leonard Woo lf andInternational Government," in David Long and Peter \X!ilson (eds.), Thinkersof the Twenty Yeal, ' Crisis, Oxford, Oxfo rd University Press, 1995 . Parts ofchapters 5 and 6 were pub lished as "Fabian Paterna lism and Radical Dissent:Leonard Woolf's Theory of Economic Imperialism," in David Long andBrian Schmidt (eds.), Imperialism and Internationalism in the Discipline ofInternational Relations, Albany, NY, SUNY Press, 2003. I am grateful toProfessors Long and Schmidt and the pub lishers for allowing this work to bepublished here.

My biggest debt, however, is to my dear partner, Debra.

Novem ber 2002 PW

CWSECOSOCFAOIBRDILOIMFIRIT UNFRBOECDPM CUNUNCTADUPUWTO

List of Abbreviations

Co-operative Wholesale SocietyEconomic and Social Council of the United NationsFood and Agriculture Organization of the Un ited Na tionsInternational Bank for Reconstruction and DevelopmentIntern ational Labour O rganizati onInternational Monetary FundThe academic discipline of International RelationsInternational Telegraphic UnionNew Fabian Research BureauOrganization for Economic Cooperation and DevelopmentPermanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nat ionsUnited NationsUnited Nati ons Conference on Trade and DevelopmentUniversal Postal UnionWorld Trade Organization

Leonard Sidney Woolf: Chronologyof his Life and Work, 1880-1969

1880 Born in Kensington , South West London, November 25.1892 LW's hithe r, Sidney Woolf, Q.c., dies at the age of 48.1894 \Vin s scholarship to St. Paul's Schoo l, London.1899 \Vins scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge.1902 Receives a First (Third Division) in the Classical Tripos, Part I.

Elected to th e Cambridge Conversazion e Society ("TheApostles").

1903 Receives a Second in Classical 'Iripos, Part II.1904 Accepts Eastern Cadership, Co lonial C ivil Service. Posted to

Ceylon.1905 Moves from Colombo to Jaffna.1907 Promoted to Office Assistant, Kandy.1908 Promo ted to Assistant Government Agent, Hambantota .1911 Return s to England on leave.1912 Resigns from Civil Service. Jo ins suffr age movem ent . Begins

writing for Co-operative News . Marri es Virg inia Steph en atSt. Pancras Register Office. Honeymoons in France, Spain, andItaly.

1913 Publishes first novel, The Village in theJungle, to widespread crit­ical acclaim. Meets the Webbs. Joins the Fabian Society. Beginswritin g for the New Statesman . VW suffers second serious mentalbreakdown (first occurred after the death of her farher, Sir LeslieSteph en, in 1904) .

1914 Publishes second novel, The Wise Virgins, to widespread crit icaldisapprobation.

1915 VW's first novel, The l/oyage Out, pub lished.

A Chronology of Life and Works • xi ii

1916 International Government published . Exempted from milita ryservice on medical gro unds .

1917 LW and VW found the Hogarth Press. L\V's younger bro ther, Cecil(b. 1887), is killed in the Battle of Cam brai. Publishes Frameworkof a Lasting Peace (ed.), and The Future ofConstantinople.

1918 App oint ed Secreta ry of the Labour Party Advisory Comm itteeon International Q uest ions. Becomes editor of InternationalReuieto (superceded by the Contemporary Review in Decem ber]919).

1919 VW publishes her second novel, Night and Day. Mon k's House,Rod mell, Sussex, purchased.

1920 Empire and Commerce in Aftica and Economic Imperialismpublished.

192 ] Storiesftom the East published. Resigns from ContemporaryReview.1922 Stands (u nsuccessfully) for Parl iame nt as Seven Unive rsities'

Democratic Associat ion candidate for the Co mbined EnglishUn iversity Co nsti tuency. Hogart h Press publishes The iVtlste Land.Appointed political editor of the Natio n. International Co-operativeTrade published.

1923 Appointed literary edito r of the Nation.1924 Appointed Secreta ry of Labour Part y Advisory Comm ittee on

Imperial Ques tions.1925 VW publ ishes Mrs Dalloway. LW publishes Fear and Politics:

A Debate at the Zoo.1927 VW publishes To the Lighthouse.1928 LW publishes Imperialism and Civilization.1929 VW publishes A Room ofOne's Own. LW resigns as literary editor

of the Nation.1930 Founds Political Quarterly. Becomes coeditor.193 ] Pub lishes After the Deluge, Vol. 1. Appointed Chairman of the

New Fabian Research Bureau , Co mm ittee for Intern ation alAffairs.

1933 The Intelligent Man's Guide to the Prevention ofiVtlr (ed.) published.1935 Quack, Quack! pu blished.1936 The League and Abyssinia published.1939 Publishes After the Deluge, Vol. 2; Barabarians at the Gate; and his

first and only work of drama, The Hotel. LW's mother, Marie, diesaged 91.

1940 The l¥'itr fOr Peace publ ished. Appointed Cha irman, FabianResearch Bureau, International Section . Founds Fabian Co lon ial

XIV • A Chronology of Life and Works

Bureau with Margaret Cole and Rita Hinden. V\YJ suffers thirdand final mental breakdown.

194 1 VW commits suicide .1942 Becomes Chairman of Fabian International Bureau. Elected director

of The New Statesman.1944 Publishes The International Post-war Settlement.1945 Resigns from the two Labour Party advisory committees.1947 Publishes Foreign Policy: The Labour Party's Dilemma.1953 Publishes Principia Politica. Begins work on autobiography.1959 Retires from Political Quarterly.1960 Visits Sri Lanka . Sowing pub lished . Declines offer of membership

of the Order of the Companions of Honour.1961 Growing pub lished.1964 Receives honorary Doctorate from University of Sussex. Beginning

Again pub lished .1965 Resigns as a director of New Statesman. Receives W H . Smith

Annual Literary Award.1966 The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological WOrks of

Sigmund Freud completed and published by the Hogarth Press.LW retires as editorial directo r.

1967 Downhill All the ~y pub lished.1969 Dies , aged 89, at Monk's House. The Journey Not the A rrival

Matterspub lished .