Page:Diplomacy and the Study of International Relations (1919).djvu/9



In this work an attempt is made to portray diplomacy and the conduct of foreign policy from the standpoint of history, to show how they have been analysed and appraised by representative writers, and to indicate sources from which the knowledge thus acquired may be supplemented. The sources could have been very much expanded. Those that I have indicated are such as have been of use to myself most of them for many years; and I believe that some, at least, of them will be useful to the citizen as well as to the student.

The conduct of foreign policy affects no people more vitally than the British. The nature of their constitutional system and the magnitude and complexity of the interests ultimately entrusted to their determination invest the electorate with special privileges and a special responsibility. The actual conduct of foreign policy must be committed to the hands of a few. But it is now clear to many who had given little thought to the matter before 1914 that there are grave dangers in keeping the bulk of the electorate uninstructed regarding the general character and the imperious demands of our foreign connexions. Sir John Seeley drew attention to the comparative neglect with which British historians of Britain had treated her foreign policy, and in a section of the present work it is pointed out that writers on our constitution and on our political problems have treated very slightly of the manner of conducting the foreign policy of this country,