100 years of Chatham House: Top ten articles from the 1960s
Editorial Team
Continuing our centenary series, we now highlight the most significant articles published in International Affairs from the 1960s. During this period International Affairs increased its scope beyond transcripts of events with Chatham House members, and began to put more emphasis on written articles from external contributors. It continued to publish significant speeches given by visiting politicians, including many heads of state. Throughout this decade the process of decolonisation, as states across the world won their independence from European colonising powers, was a central concern for the journal. Despite, or perhaps due to, Chatham House’s imperial origins, the Institute hosted the leaders of many of the newly independent states, including Prime Minister Modibo Keita of Mali, President Léopold Senghor of Senegal, President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania.
1) Julius Nyerere on nationalism in Tanzania
Julius Nyerere (1922–1999) was an activist and politician who spearheaded the movement to claim independence for Tanzania. Nyerere spent many years campaigning for Tanzanian independence from the British Empire, and helped to found the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) party. From 1961, he served as the first Prime Minister of the newly independent state of Tanganyika, and later became the first President of its successor state Tanzania.
In July 1959, Nyerere addressed a Chatham House audience in his capacity as Leader of the TANU opposition in the newly formed Legislative Council in Tanganyika. The speech was published in International Affairs in January 1960.
From the article:
Our country must learn to think as a nation, and we are faced with the question of organization and of getting the hundred and twenty tribes to think of themselves as one people. We have faced that problem and I think we can now say that it is behind us.
2) Gwendolen Carter on racial inequalities and decolonisation
Gwendolen M. Carter (1906–1991) was a Canadian-American political scientist and an important figure in the disciplinary establishment of African studies. Over the course of a long academic career Carter wrote frequently on southern African politics writing seminal academic texts on the politics and economics of political change in southern Africa. Throughout her life Carter maintained correspondence with a range of prolific anticolonial and anti-apartheid figures including Julius Nyerere (who also wrote in the journal during this period), Steve Biko, Seretse Khama, Helen Joseph and Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
In 1960 Carter wrote in International Affairs on the issue of ongoing racial inequality in Africa as it underwent processes of decolonisation.
From the article:
The lesson of the Congo is not to avoid concessions, but to make them early enough, so that a reasonable balance can be maintained between the interests and contributions of all concerned.
3) Lord Alec Douglas-Home on the future of UK foreign policy
Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home (1903–1995) was a senior British Conservative politician. Home was the last British Prime Minister to hold office while a member of the House of Lords although he is more recognised for his two stints as Foreign Secretary than his short spell as Prime Minister (1964–65). As Foreign Secretary, Home served throughout the Cuban Missile Crisis in which he was a staunch supporter of the Kennedy Administration and was the British signatory to the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Home also served as Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary from 1970–1974 under Edward Heath during which time the UK first joined the European Economic Community (EEC).
In December 1960 Lord Home addressed Chatham House members, at Draper’s Hall in London, on the future of UK foreign policy in relation to the Commonwealth, the US and Europe.
From the article:
When I hear people talk in this economic context of our having to choose between the United States or the Commonwealth or Europe, my reply is that that is not the choice…. The choice is not between one or the other; the task is to make the best of the resources of all three.
4) Barbara Ward on India’s economic development
Barbara Mary Ward (1914–1981) was a British development economist and writer. During the Second World War Ward worked for the Ministry of Information and later worked for The Economist, rising to the position of foreign affairs editor before leaving in 1950. As a development economist Ward advised figures such as US President Lyndon B. Johnson and US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, despite her opposition to the Vietnam War, and is credited with being an early advocate for the concept of sustainable development. Ward also founded the Institute for Environment and Development, serving as its president from 1973–1981.
In May 1961 she addressed Chatham House members on India’s Five-year development plans and their implications for relations between India and ‘western’ states.
From the article:
But the choice remains. Is Britain ready to slow down domestic demand for some inessentials so that India’s essential requirements can be met?
5) Margaret Ballinger on the future of South Africa
Margaret Ballinger (1894–1980) was a South African politician and academic who played a key role in the formation of the South African Liberal Party. Ballinger was one of a small group of politicians within the South African Parliament who spoke out against the rise of the far-right National Party, and she vocally opposed the institution of apartheid as Leader of the Liberal Party from 1953. In 1960 Ballinger left Parliament after seats representing Africans in parliament were abolished, and left the Liberal Party prior to its closure in 1968 in the face of new laws that made it illegal for political parties to have members of more than one racial group.
In July 1962 Ballinger wrote in International Affairs on the future of South Africa.
From the article:
Even as he is offering this comfort to the white voters, the Africans themselves are beginning to be heard staking new claims that can scarcely be disregarded.
6) Antonio Oliviera de Salazar on Portugal’s domestic security
Antonio de Oliviera Salazar (1889–1970) was the authoritarian Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932–1968. A conservative nationalist, Salazar drove Portuguese support for General Franco during the Spanish Civil War and was a significant factor in maintaining Portuguese and Spanish neutrality during World War 2. Whilst in government Salazar was responsible for establishing and presiding over the Estado Novo, an authoritarian conservative corporatist form of the Portuguese state that enforced its polices through the use of secret police, censorship, and the detention and torture of political prisoners. Salazar also took Portugal into a series of protracted wars in an attempt to violently maintain control of its colonial empire, and provided financial and military backing to the Rhodesian government.
In April 1963, Salazar wrote in International Affairs in response to ongoing international criticism of his regime’s domestic and foreign policy.
From the article:
We are accused also of having a police organisation for the defence of the State and, while we are not accused of conducting purges: so prevalent in other countries, the cruelty of the police methods is thrown in our faces. There is no seriousness or truth in such criticisms.
7) Yigal Allon on Israel and its neighbours
Yigal Allon (1918–1980) was an Israeli politician and military commander. Allon’s military career began as a member of Haganah, the main paramilitary organisation for the Jewish population in mandatory Palestine. Allon went on to become a key figure within the early Israeli Defence Force until he resigned in protest after being relieved of command of Israeli forces on the Israeli-Egyptian border in favour of Moshe Dayan. While still a general Allon helped form the left wing Mapam party and after leaving the IDF, he served in numerous cabinet positions for Ahdut HaAvoda and the Israeli Labour Party including a brief stint as Prime Minister in 1969.
In 1963, as Israeli Minister of Labour, Allon wrote on the future of relations between Israel and its neighbours:
From the article:
I believe that the more friends Israel and the Arab states have in common the further the danger of war will recede and the brighter the prospects of peace will become.
8) Joseph Luns on Europe’s global role
Joseph Marie Antoine Hubert Luns (1911–2002) was a Dutch politician and diplomat. From 1952 until 1971 Luns was Foreign Minister of the Netherlands in successive cabinets, where he played key roles in the normalisation of relations with West Germany, positioning the Netherlands within NATO and the formation of the EEC. He also served as NATO Secretary General from 1971–1984, during which he worked to modernize NATO nuclear forces and moderate numerous political disputes which emerged between alliance members.
In January 1964 Luns addressed Chatham House on the future of Europe within the international system
From the article:
If the European nations genuinely have no wish to go on living in the past, and if they do not wish to be hypnotised by their present frustrations, their future security can only be assured if they join forces.
9) Che Guevara on Cuba’s agricultural reforms
Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara (1928–1967) was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary who played a central role in the Cuban revolution. Born in Argentina andinitially trained as a doctor, Guevara became a key military commander in the Cuban revolution and remained an important figure in Casrto’s revolutionary government until 1965. Following this Guevara distanced himself from the Cuban state and directly involved himself in armed revolutionary uprisings in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Bolivia. He was captured and executed by Bolivian Forces in 1967.
In October 1964, two months prior to his historic speech addressing the United Nations in New York, Guevara wrote in International Affairs on the history and future of the Cuban economy and its relation to the US.
From the article:
American Imperialism is weaker than it seems: It is a giant with feet of clay.
10) Eduardo Frei Montalva on Latin America and the global economy
Eduardo Frei Montalva (1911–1982) was the first Christian Democrat President of Chile. While in government from 1964–1970. Frei passed moderate agricultural and nationalisation programmes and made significant advances in improving access to education for Chileans in poverty. After leaving office, Frei became Leader of the Senate in 1974. In this role Frei opposed the Allende government and initially supported Augusto Pinochet’s military coup before becoming a staunch critic of its human rights abuses. Frei was poisoned whilst seeking medical treatment in hospital in 1981 in a homicide some have linked to the Pinochet regime.
In 1966, as the serving President of Chile, Frei wrote in International Affairs on Latin America’s position in the world economy.
From the article:
Social change in Latin America cannot be deferred; pressure will increase at the rate at which the masses of peasants and labourers living on the margins of the regional economy without power and without organisation make themselves felt.
11) Muhammad Ayub Khan on Pakistani foreign and economic policy
Muhammad Ayub Khan (1907–1974) was a military leader and the second President of Pakistan. Khan’s career began as an officer in the British Indian Army, in which he fought during the Second World War. In 1951 he became the Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army in a politically controversial appointment, given the presence of three generals who all outranked him at the time. In 1954 Khan was invited to the cabinet as Defence Minister until 1958 when he seized power via a military coup and became Pakistan’s second President. In office until 1969, Khan balanced positive relations with the US and China and instituted significant economic reforms but was accused of election rigging and his popularity declined following Pakistan’s defeat to India in the 1965 war.
In 1966, during his time as President, Khan addressed Chatham House on the progress of Pakistan’s economy and its position in the international system:
From the article:
Pakistan has always tried, within the limits of her abilities, to play her full part as a loyal and law-abiding member of the world community. But the world community’s survival and welfare cannot be ensured unless the inequalities between, and lingering reservations about, the sovereignty of all nations, big or small, are removed.
We hope you enjoyed this fifth 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.
