Endorsements for This Book ‘In the twentieth century, E.H. Carr was one of the most original and interesting thinkers about International Relations. Carr’s insights into the nature of interna- tional affairs warrant attention. Everyone interested in international politics should read this book.’ —Robert Gilpin, Eisenhower Professor Emeritus of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University ‘The Twenty Years’ Crisis is one of those books that somehow never goes out of date. It brings into sharp focus a lot of core questions that anyone grappling with the com- plexities of International Relations needs to confront, and it sets a standard of clarity and vigour of prose that has few competitors in the contemporary IR literature.’ —Barry Buzan, Professor Emeritus of International Relations, The London School of Economics and Political Science ‘Apparently overtaken by events in the very days of its first publication, Carr’sThe Twenty Years Crisis has never been more pertinent to the discussion of International Relations relations than it is today: in a world beset by the twin extremes which he excoriated, a craven and short-sighted realism on the one hand, and an unan- chored and irresponsible idealism on the other, Carr’s astute arguments should be central to our analysis of, and response to, the world of the twenty-first century.’ —Fred Halliday Now is the time to relaunch The Twenty Years’ Crisis as a basis for rethinking the problem of world order in a time of greater complexity and uncertainty. [Carr’s] exposure of the power relations underlying doctrines of the harmony of interests is especially pertinent to a serious understanding of the ideology of globalization today, while his careful discussion of the need to balance power and morality warns against the hypocrisy of contemporary great-power crusading.’ —Professor Robert Cox, Emeritus Professor, York University, Canada ‘The net influence of the book…is mischievous.’ —Norman Angell ‘Brilliantly reasoned.’ —R.W. Seton-Watson ‘A brilliant, provocative and unsatisfying book.’ —Martin Wight ‘Carr is the consummate debunker who was debunked by the war itself.’ —Arnold Toynbee ‘Professor Carr has shown the entire inadequacy of Professors Zimmern and Toynbee: who will demonstrate the entire inadequacy of Professor Carr?’ —Richard Crossman The Twenty Years’ Crisis, 1919–1939 E.H. Carr Reissued with a new preface from Michael Cox ISBN 978-1-349-95075-1 ISBN 978-1-349-95076-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-349-95076-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016958910 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub- lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd. The registered company address is: The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom Author Biographies E. H. Carr was born in 1892, joined the Foreign Office in 1916 and resigned 20 years later to become the fourth Woodrow Wilson Professor in the Department of International Politics at the University College of Wales Aberystwyth. There he published seven books including The Twenty Years’ Crisis in 1939. The following year he joined the Ministry of Information before moving on to become the Assistant Editor of The Times. In 1945 he began work on his massive History of Soviet Russia. He was elected a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1995. The author of the bestselling What Is History? in 1961, Carr died in 1982 at the age of 90. Michael Cox is Professor Emeritus of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Director of LSE IDEAS, the world ranked Think Tank. Author and editor of over 25 books and a leading specialist on the life and work of E.H Carr, he is editor of Palgrave’s flagship journal of IR,International Politics, as well as its successful book series, Rethinking World Politics. He is completing a history of the LSE. v Contents A New Preface from Michael Cox, 2016 ix Acknowledgements xxiii Introduction by Michael Cox xxv A Brief Guide to the Writings of E. H. Carr lxxv A Guide to the Secondary Literature on E. H. Carr lxxx From the First to the Second Editions of The Twenty Years' Crisis: A Case of Self-censorship? lxxxviii Glossary of Names xcix Chronology cx Preface to the 1981 Printing cxix Preface to Second Edition cxxi Preface to First Edition cxxiii PART ONE THE SCIENCE OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS ONE The Beginning of a Science 3 TWO Utopia and Reality 12 PART TWO THE INTERNATIONAL CRISIS THREE The Utopian Background 25 FOUR The Harmony of Interests 42 FIVE The Realist Critique 62 vii viii Contents SIX The Limitations of Realism 84 PART THREE POLITICS, POWER AND MORALITY SEVEN The Nature of Politics 91 EIGHT Power in International Politics 97 (a) Military Power 102 (b) Economic Power 105 (c) Power over Opinion 120 NINE Morality in International Politics 135 PART FOUR LAWS AND CHANGE TEN The Foundations of Law 159 ELEVEN The Sanctity of Treaties 168 TWELVE The Judicial Settlement of International Disputes 178 THIRTEEN Peaceful Change 191 CONCLUSION FOURTEEN The Prospects of a New International Order 207 Index 221 A New Preface from Michael Cox, 2016 A Carr for the Twenty-First Century For a generation which never really experienced the Cold War, or who came to intellectual maturity long after it had become but a distant memory, it is dif- ficult, if not impossible, to convey what an extraordinary shock it was to nearly all of us to see the certainties of nearly 40 years simply evaporate before our very eyes between 1989 and 1991. Of course, for those who had always preached that there was no rational alternative to the market, the collapse of an old order underpinned as it was by what Ronald Reagan had earlier called an ‘evil empire’ could only be welcomed. Yet others were not so certain. Indeed, one of the more famous doyens of academic International Relations (IR) warned both liberals and triumphalists that the world might soon be missing the Cold War or at least should not be welcoming its passing with such gusto.1 He was right to sound a note of warning. Indeed, when the demise of Soviet power was followed in turn by the tragic collapse of former Yugoslavia, genocide in Rwanda, economic catas- trophe in ‘reforming’ Russia itself, a horrifying but successful attack on the USA in 9 September 2001, the Iraq war, the great financial crash of 2008, and then, to cap it all, a revolt in North Africa which began with such high expectations but very soon threatened to destroy the state system in the Middle East, then it was palpably obvious that, that much heralded ‘new world order’ announced back in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush was not about to be realized any time soon. Meanwhile, the discipline of IR, having first tried to come to terms with the end of a bipolar order it had for decades assumed to be stable, has been strug- gling ever since to make sense of an international system which in one sense has never been so peaceful—great power war we are told is a thing of the past—but at another so full of so many risks. The world today may be richer, more democratic, more middle class and just a little less scarred by the kinds of poverty once assumed to be normal in the ‘Third World’. Globalization has delivered something as economists constantly remind us. But never has this same world been so unequal, or, its future prospects apparently so uncertain. Indeed, it is difficult to know 1 John J. Mearsheimer, ‘Why We Will Soon Miss The Cold War’. The Atlantic Monthly, 266(2), 35–50, August 1990. ix x A New Preface from Michael Cox, 2016 where to start, with all manner of danger arising—or so we have been warned— from either the long-term decline of the West, a ‘new’ Cold War between Russia and the West, and of course by the apparently irresistible rise of China which according to some pundits at least (including some in China itself) can only end in tragedy.2 Add to this the threat caused by the failure of several states close to Europe and the possible collapse of the European project itself, then it is fairly self- evident why many are now insisting that we are living through seriously dangerous and uncertain times with possibly much worse to come.3 Amidst all this change it is perhaps reassuring that a number of more historically minded scholars have returned to look in a more systematic way at some of the early classics of the discipline.