100 years of Chatham House: Top ten articles from the 1970s
Editorial Team
The 1970s saw International Affairs cement its position as primarily an academic journal, though as shown below speeches of prominent policymakers remained regular contributors. As you will see, much of the journal’s output focused on the strengthening of the various institutions that made up the post-war international order, including the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, and European Economic Community. Other contributions explore the emerging disciplines of development studies and international economics, revealing the widening scope of Chatham House’s research.
1) Margery Perham on the Nigerian-Biafran War
Margery Perham (1895–1982) was a British academic and historian. Perham was both the first woman fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, the first woman to deliver the BBC Reith Lectures in 1961. For much of her career Perham focused on African politics from within the institutions of the British imperial state, as a trainer of colonial administrators, although she later became a significant advocate of decolonisation within the British Labour Party.
As initially she was a relatively high-profile supporter of Biafran independence at a time the UK supported the Nigerian government, Perham’s views on the Nigerian-Biafran War were a matter of parliamentary debate in the UK. Perham’s views changed considerably throughout the war and in its aftermath. In 1970, Perham reflected on the conflict in an article in International Affairs.
From the article:
I must plead guilty to expressing my views of the conflict, views developing to fit our increasing knowledge of the distant and changing situation, in the correspondence page of The Times and elsewhere. I do not accept that in trying to find a solution for a distant, complex and changing situation, a rigid consistency of opinion is a merit.
2) Susan Strange on economics and international relations
Susan Strange (1923–1998) was a British academic who played a foundational role in the establishment of the discipline of political economy. She vocally advocated for the study of international politics and economics as interconnected phenomena to the point of being described by one author as ‘almost single-handedly responsible for creating international political economy’ as a discipline. In her work Strange dealt extensively the international politics of financial volatility in a career that saw her become the first woman to hold the Montague Burton Chair of International Relations at the London School of Economics, a founding member and first treasurer of the British International Studies Association and President of the International Studies Association.
In 1970, Strange wrote in International Affairs on the negative impacts of the academic divide between economics and international relations:
From the article:
The only thing I have ever found really dismal about the science is its habit of reducing individuals to units of a statistic, and then of jumping to the assumption in its model-making that at all times these units are fully interchangeable with one another.
3) Eugene V. Rostow on superpower politics in the Middle East
Eugene Victor Debs Rostow (1913–2002) was an American legal scholar and policymaker. Rostow served as Under-Secretary of State in the Johnson administration where he was a fierce opponent of détente with the Soviet Union and a contributor to drafting UN Security Council resolution 242, a significant UN resolution passed in the aftermath of the Six-Day War. Rostow later returned to government under President Reagan as Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, in which capacity he played a significant role in the end of détente in the final decade of the cold war.
In 1971, four years after the Six-Day War and two years before the Yom Kippur War, Rostow wrote in Chatham House on the role of superpower tensions in fuelling conflict between Israel and its neighbours:
From the article:
It is never too late to make peace. But the odds on peace diminish as Soviet penetration proceeds.
4) Uma Lele and John Mellor on technology and rural inequality
Uma J. Lele is a development economist and the President-Elect of the International Association of Agricultural Economists. Lele was the first woman to be awarded a PhD in Agricultural Economics by the University of Cornell and over the course of a distinguished research career has held numerous positions at the World Bank, from 1971 to 2005, as well as at numerous US universities and other international institutions. Her research focuses primarily on development, agricultural economics and resource management.
John W. Mellor is a development economist, policymaker and emeritus professor. Mellor has held numerous professorships in a career that focused heavily on agricultural economics. Mellor was a central figure at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) throughout the 1970s, playing a key role in the organisation’s response to the 1973–74 food crisis and eventually becoming the organisation’s director from 1976–77. Mellor’s research also focuses primarily on development and agricultural economics.
In 1972, Lele and Mellor wrote in International Affairs on the politics of technology in rural agricultural development.
From the article:
If the extraordinary promise of the emerging agricultural technologies is to be realised, a drastic change in policies towards employment and industrialisation will be needed.. a ‘green revolution’ also requires a high-employment policy if income disparities are not to be greatly widened.
5) Rosalyn Higgins on international migration law
Rosalyn Higgins is a former head of the International Court of Justice. Higgins worked as a specialist in international law at Chatham House from 1963–74, qualifying as a barrister in 1968. She then went on to serve in numerous positions including spending 14 years as a member of the international UN Human Rights committee. Higgins became the first female judge to be elected to the International Court of Justice in 1995, and served as the legal body’s President from 2006–09. More recently she contributed to the Chilcot Inquiry, which investigated the UK’s involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In 1973, Higgins wrote in International Affairs on the human rights and international migration law.
From the article:
We should remind ourselves that it is only through a liberal interpretation of the dignity of the individual and his freedom from arbitrary restraints that, in the long term, the state will hold the loyalty of its citizens, and be able to function to maximum advantage internationally.
6) Pierre-Paul Schweitzer on the international monetary system
Pierre-Paul Schweitzer (1912–1994) was a French businessman and policymaker. During the Second World War Schweitzer served as a lieutenant in the French Army and later joined the French resistance, before his capture and imprisonment in Buchenwald concentration camp. Schweitzer served in numerous financial positions in the French government after the war as well as within the French aviation and oil industries. Schweitzer was Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund from 1963–1973, during which time he oversaw the creation of special drawing rights as an international reserve asset and the collapse of the par value system.
In 1976 Schweitzer spoke at Chatham House on the politics of the international monetary system:
From the article:
The domestic policies which have to be pursued in order to achieve certain objectives are at the core of each country’s political life… it is easier to belong to NATO and to fulfil one’s obligations to NATO than to belong to the IMF and fulfil one’s obligations to the IMF, because it affects people much more directly.
7) Sam Nolutshungu on ideas of commitment in international politics
Sam Clement Nolutshungu (1945–1997) was a prominent South African academic, writer and critic of apartheid. Nolutshungu grew up in apartheid South Africa and went into exile to pursue an academic career in the UK and the US. Nolutshungu went on to teach at numerous universities, becoming one of the first black South African academics to be recognised internationally for his work on the international relations, politics and foreign policy of South Africa. Nolutshungu was a vocal critic of apartheid and also wrote on the complicity of western governments’ in supporting the apartheid regime.
In 1976, Nolutshungu wrote in International Affairs on the structural politics of the concept of commitment in international relations.
From the article:
The indefiniteness of the term commitment (and the possibility of commitments being unilaterally incurred), has clear imperialist possibilities… Provided that the resources were there, and with them an underlying disposition to expand, Britain (and France) could readily recognise and assert ‘commitments’ all over the world.
8) Gamani Corea on UNCTAD and international economics
Gamani Corea (1925–2013) was a Sri Lankan economist and civil servant. Corea held numerous senior positions at the central bank of Sri Lanka and served as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the EEC, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Corea also played a prodigious role within the UN system, occupying senior positions including Secretary General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) from 1974–1984. In this capacity, Corea played a key role in attempting to strength the position of developing countries within the UN system, working in tandem with the nonaligned movement and G77.
In 1977, a transcript of Corea’s 1976 lecture at the London School of Economics on UNCTAD was published in International Affairs:
From the article:
I see the call for a New International Economic Order as reflecting in a sense the insistence of the countries of the third world on belonging to, and being treated as, an integral part of the global order. It is a reflection of their unwillingness to continue to remain on the periphery of such an order.
9) Michael Howard on ethics in international relations
Professor Michael Howard (1922–2019) was a British military historian and co-founder for the International Institute of Strategic Studies. Howard served in the Coldstream Guards during the Second World War, winning a military cross during the first battle of Monte Casino. As an academic Howard was a key figure in the development of the sub-discipline of strategic studies in the UK and was consulted by members of both main parties on issue relating to international relations. He also helped to found the War Studies department at King’s College London and developed an approach to military history which emphasized the uniqueness and particularity of specific historical conflicts.
In 1977, Howard gave the Martin Wight Memorial Lecture on ethics in international relations.
From the article:
It was the tragedy of the League of Nations… that it was founded at a moment when it could not hope to operate successfully except as the executive organ of a group of like-minded nations prepared in the last resort to enforce their decisions by precisely those mechanisms of military power which its very existence was intended to render obsolete.
10) Christopher Andrew on the British and American intelligence services
Christopher Maurice Andrew is a British historian who has specialised in the study of intelligence organisations throughout his academic career. He has produced work on numerous organisations internationally and is a key figure in the history of the still active Cambridge Intelligence seminar run between academics and policymakers in the field of intelligence under the Chatham House rule. Andrew was also enrolled in MI5 in 2003 when he was selected to become the service’s first official historian.
In 1977, Andrew wrote in International Affairs on the differing political positions of the British and American state intelligence services.
From the article:
It is idle to suppose that its emergence will have no repercussions in Whitehall. The British parliament and public will sooner or later claim the same freedom of information as their American counterparts… it may even be sooner rather than later.
We hope you enjoyed this sixth 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.
