100 years of Chatham House: Top ten articles from the 1950s
Editorial Team
Continuing our Chatham House Centenary series, we now highlight ten significant articles published in International Affairs throughout the 1950s. During this time, the ongoing escalation of the Cold War as well as the political complexities of decolonisation coincided with the increasing formalisation of Chatham House as an organisation; as it moved away from an ad-hoc collection of academic working groups and towards functioning as a centralised research institute.
1) Richard Austin Butler on Commonwealth diplomatic relations
Who was he?
Richard Austin (Rab) Butler (1902–1982) was a British Conservative politician who along with Hugh Gaitskell (below) was one of the main architects of Britain’s post-war economic consensus. Butler was a noted advocate of appeasement who initially served during the Second World War as a Foreign Office minister before being side-lined by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and moved to the Ministry of Education in 1944. He contributed substantially to British foreign and domestic policy in a political career that saw him become one of only two people in the history of the UK to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary without ever becoming Prime Minister.
In November 1949, Butler addressed Chatham House on the proceedings of the fourth unofficial Commonwealth relations conference. The speech was published in International Affairs on New Year’s Day, 1950.
From the article:
The United Kingdom delegates felt, and I think the Conference agreed, that it would be a thousand pities if we were to imagine that our trade with western Europe is likely to be in any degree as important as our trade with the Commonwealth.
2) George Paget Thomson on hydrogen weapons
Who was he?
George Paget Thomson (1982–1975) was a British nuclear physicist and key figure in nuclear research during the Second World War. Thomson spent the majority of the First World War working on aerodynamics for the fledgling Royal Flying Corps. As a nuclear physicist Thomson was a co-recipient of the 1937 Nobel prize for physics for his work in proving the principle of wave-particle duality. During the Second World War, Thomson was head of the British MAUD Committee which first ascertained the feasibility of producing an atomic nuclear weapon in a report that significantly contributed to the development of the Manhattan Project.
In 1950 Thomson addressed Chatham House about the potential impact of hydrogen nuclear weapons.
From the article:
Let me urge all to look on it in a broad and generous way; do not let us destroy humanity for a doubtful advantage over our enemies.
3) Christopher Mayhew on British Cold War diplomacy
Christopher Mayhew (1915–1997) was a British Labour and Liberal politician. During the Second World War Mayhew was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps, rising to the rank of Major. In 1945 Mayhew was elected as an MP and served as under-secretary to the Foreign Office, during which he pushed for the British government to adopt a more proactive approach to producing anti-communist propaganda. In 1974 Mayhew became the first Labour MP in decades to leave the party for the Liberals and was made a Liberal Democrat defence spokesperson in the House of Lords in 1981.
In June 1950 Mayhew addressed Chatham House on Britain’s international position in relation to the developing Cold War.
From the article:
Mr Marshall, Mr Acheson, Mr Bevin, M. Bidault and M. Schuman have done much for Western unity; but M. Molotov did more.
4) Milovan Djilas on the Yugoslav-Soviet split
Who was he?
Milovan Djilas (1911–1995) was a political writer and former Yugoslav Communist Party official, noted for his eventual disenchantment with communism. During the Second World War Djilas was a senior figure within Josef Tito’s communist partisan resistance, and after the war was made a key minister in Tito’s government of Yugoslavia, eventually rising to President of the Federal Assembly. Djilas oversaw Yugoslavia’s shift in alignment away from Soviet Union and became increasingly disillusioned with communism, leading to his ousting and imprisonment in 1953. Djilas remained an outspoken critic of communism and rising nationalisms within Yugoslavia until its collapse and disintegration during the late 1980s and 1990s.
In 1951 Djilas gave a speech to Chatham House on the subject of the changing dynamic of Yugoslav-Soviet diplomatic relations.
From the article:
In such exceptionally difficult conditions, Yugoslavia was the only country in Europe which, in the course of the war, created a new army and a new State. To the Yugoslavs no-one brought their liberation on a silver plate, no-one imposed upon them any form of government which they themselves had not created in their struggle.
5) Konrad Adenauer on Germany’s position in post-war Europe
Who was he?
Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967) was the primary founder of the centre-right CDU party and the first Chancellor of post-war West Germany. As a prominent figure within the Weimar Republic’s moderate Centre Party, Adenauer was repeatedly arrested by the Nazis both prior to and during the Second World War. After the war Adenauer founded the CDU and was elected Chancellor of West Germany from 1949–1963. In this capacity, Adenauer was responsible for establishing West Germany’s relationship with NATO, ending denazification and overseeing West German entrance into the EEC.
In 1951 as Chancellor of West Germany Adenauer gave an address to Chatham House on the subject of West Germany’s position in the emerging post-war international system.
From the article:
The catastrophe made the German people realize that in the past, peace had again and again been wrecked on the rocks of an exaggerated nationalism. This led to the recognition that our existence, as well as that of all the other European nations, could be preserved only within a community transcending national frontiers.
6) Majid Khadduri
Who was he?
Majid Khadduri (1909–2007) was an Iraqi-born academic. Khadduri specialised in the politics of the Middle East throughout a prodigious academic career spanning from the 1930s to the early 2000s during which he taught at multiple universities in countries from around the world. During his academic career he played a key role in establishing the Middle Eastern Studies programme at John Hopkins University and in establishing the University of Libya. In 1945 Khadduri was also a member of the Iraqi delegation to the San Francisco conference that resulted in the formation if the UN charter.
In 1952 Khadduri spoke Chatham House members about the causes and limitations of the 1948 coup in Yemen.
From the article:
If al-Wartalani was the brains of the opposition, Colonel Jamal Jamil, the other adventurer, was the executioner of the conspiracy.
7) Hugh Gaitskell on the Sterling Area
Who was he?
Hugh Gaitskell (1906–1963) was a senior Labour politician who was one of the main architects of the post-war economic consensus. During the Second World War, Gaitskell served as a senior civil servant at the Ministry for Economic Warfare and in the war’s aftermath was elected as an MP in Clement Attlee’s Government. Gaitskell played a key moderating role in shaping Labour economic policy both as a minister in government from 1946–51, as a shadow minister and as eventual leader of the opposition until his death in January 1963.
In 1952 Gaitskell addressed Chatham House on the Sterling Area and it’s changing position within the developing post-war global economy.
From the article:
There is, I think, fundamentally a great understanding between the members of the sterling area; there is, I believe, a consciousness that they all, on the whole, stand to gain from it quite substantially. There has been displayed in the past a sense of mutual loyalty, a carrying out of awkward and difficult decisions because it was seen to be necessary. I cannot but feel, however, that something a little more formal and something a little more continuous is needed than we have at the moment.
8) Henry M. Wriston on American foreign policy and public opinion
Henry M. Wriston (1889–1978) was an American educator and presidential advisor. Wriston was at various times President of Lawrence College and Brown University, and was also President of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1951–1964. In the government sphere Wriston served as an advisor to President Eisenhower, on the State Department’s advisory committee and on the Commission of National Goals, a non-official advisory group established by Eisenhower to develop US government’s long term understandings of its national policy objectives.
In 1952 Wriston addressed Chatham House on the relationship between American public opinion and foreign policy.
From the article:
If Mr Truman is regarded as guilty of ‘cronyism’ and of winking at shoddy practices, on the Republican side are Senator McCarthy and his backers. Fair play, sportsmanship, clean fighting are strikingly absent from the political ring. The public is tempted to say, ‘A plague on both your houses’.
9) Elizabeth Monroe on the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
Who was she?
Elizabeth Monroe (1905–1986) was a British journalist and historian specialising in the politics of the Middle East. Prior to the Second World War, Monroe worked at the League of Nations and Chatham House, and was particularly active in drawing attention to Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. During the war she worked in the Ministry of Information as head of its Middle East Intelligence division. After the war Monroe worked on the staff of The Economist for fifteen years and amongst a distinguished academic career played a key founding role in establishing the Middle East Centre at St Anthony’s College Oxford.
In 1953 Monroe spoke at Chatham House on the subject of Israeli and Palestinian refugees and the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
From the article:
The real victims of the quarrel-the refugees, the Jordanians, the Israelis-are powerless because other Arab governments can and are prepared to balk any move towards settlement.
10) Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett on the threat of nuclear war
Who was he?
Patrick Blackett (1897–1974) was a British physicist, military strategist and political advisor. During the First World War Blackett was served at the Battle of Jutland, by some measures the largest Naval battle in history. As a physicist, he won the Nobel prize in 1948 for his work on cosmic rays. Blackett was a member of the MAUD committee during the Second World War and was also an outspoken opponent of large-scale allied area bombing. In the war’s aftermath he became opposed to British attempts to develop nuclear weapons and was a key figure in the establishment of the overseas development institute.
In 1958 Blackett gave an address at Chatham House on evolving attitudes to the use of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons and the implications of this for NATO.
From the article:
The figures may well be quite wrong, but the effect of their publication without effective refutation can only be to prevent the threat of total war being used effectively by America to keep a limited nuclear war limited. In such calculations it is becoming customary for convenience in the United States to make use of a new unit of numbers of killed — this is the Mega-death.
We hope you enjoyed this fourth post in our series, ‘100 years of Chatham House’. Every month throughout 2020, the editorial team of International Affairs will be publishing some of the highlights from each decade since the founding of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
Read more from the series here.
Find out more about the Chatham House Centenary here.
