1 Since 1914 the structure of the world has changed.
Compared to the present struggle between West and East,
the rivalries of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries sink
4 into insignificance. Today we are faced, not with a clash of
interests, but with a fight between the desire on the one hand
to defend individual liberties and the resolve on the other
7 hand to impose a mass religion. In the process the old
standards, conventions and methods of international
negotiation have been discredited. Had it not been for the
10 invention of the atomic bomb, we should already have been
subjected to a third world war.
Members of the Communist bloc today are
13 convinced that sooner or later they will acquire world
dominion and will succeed in imposing their faith and their
authority over the whole earth. They strain towards this
16 objective with religious intensity and are prepared to devote
to its achievement their lives, their comfort and their
prospects of happiness. Anything that furthers their purpose
19 is “right”; anything that obstructs it is “wrong”;
conventional morality, even the creation of confidence, has
no part in this scheme of things. Truth itself has lost its
22 significance. Compared to the shining truth of their gospel,
all minor forms of veracity are merely bourgeois inhibitions.
The old diplomacy was based upon the creation of
25 confidence, the acquisition of credit. The modern diplomat
must realize that he can no longer rely on the old system of
trust; he must accept the fact that his antagonists will not
28 hesitate to falsify facts and that they feel no shame if their
duplicity be exposed. The old currency has been withdrawn
from circulation; we are dealing in a new coinage.
31 This transformation of values has been aided by a new
or “democratic” conception of international relations. In the
old days the conduct of foreign affairs was entrusted to a
34 small international élite who shared the same sort of
background and who desired to preserve the same sort of
world. Today the masses are expected to take an interest in
37 foreign affairs, to know the details of current controversies,
to come to their own conclusions, and to render these
conclusions effective through press and parliament. At the
40 same time, however, current issues have been rendered
complex and interconnected; it is not possible to state issues,
such as the Common Market, in short and simple terms.
43 Thus, whereas the man in the street is expected to have an
opinion on international problems, the very complexity of
these problems has rendered it difficult to provide him with
46 the information on which to base his judgment.
Nicolson, H. (1963) (3rd edition) Diplomacy.
Oxford: OUP, with adaptations.