New Worlds
BY D. W. BROGAN
WiTH the Soviet penetration of outer space and Mr. Mikoyan getting into orbit in the United States, these two excellent books* are exceptionally topical. They are also exceptionally useful. For they are complementary; one, in a sense, is a reply to the other. Professor Beloff, . as his title suggests, is concerned with world politics in terms of the old, tried, condemned, dangerous State system, which he believes we yet have to live with. His is a book in the great tradi- tion of realistic European political reflection. Our problems are deeply rooted in history and are only intelligible and manageable if we examine them in that light. But—and it is a very important but —he is far from seeing these problems in the traditional fashion of European scholarship. He knows, today, that none of the great powers is purely European (although Russia is mostly European); he is conscious of the parochial character , of much diplomatic history and of much reflection on it. The change in scale—to our disadvantage—is ever present in his mind, the present and potential power of China as well as of the Soviet Union and the United States is part of the background. And like every other intelligent commentator he sees the unprecedented *means of self-destruction that mankind has acquired as a new dimension of power and risk. But, for Profes- sor Beloff, the world has not been totally trans- formed; old patterns persist, old legacies of hate, crime add folly have lobe allowed for.
For Professor Mills the story is very different. This is a 100 per cent. Ainerican book and that Americanism is one of its chief merits, both because, it makes the book representative and because the Very American point of view repre- sented has the merit of freshness. As an American radical, Professor Mills emphasises things that we don't see or that we ignore. Confronted with the sight of human folly on a cosmic scale, he does not throw up his hands; he spits on them and gets down to the job. For him, history is not a governing condition, neither is past theory. The rational course of action is obvious and if enough people get to work in the right spirit and with the right degree of intelligence, the world will escape the doom of 'World War But unless there is this brisk stocktaking and house-cleaning we will blunder into the final catastrophe.
The contrast with Professor' Beloff is marked. He devotes a good deal of his space to debunking the naive federalist ideas of many 'Europeans,' and thinks the idea of a European federation is mainly argued for by 'people who know very little of the character and the difficulties of federal government. He also believes that naive American support has been a nuisance; so has the more sophisticated support that has taken the form of pointing at the success story of the United States and saying 'Go thou and do likewise.' The Great Rehearsal' of 1787 has few positive lessons for the Europe of 1959. Historical traditions, dif- ferences in language and culture, legacies of justified mistrust, different doctrinal views of what the world is or should be, all of these have to be allowed for and an overall panacea that ignores these realities may do a lot more harm than good.
It would be unjust to reproach Professor Mills with being simply a panacea-monger. He is rather an angry radical shocked and frightened by what he sees in America. He sees an alliance by the great corporations and the Pentagon designed to keep international tensions acute. That way, the present exorbitant expenditure on defence can continue, and a, great part of the American eConomy depends on that expenditure; and, equally important,, the managers of the, economy depend on the tension-based boom for the rise in stock prices which is their material reward. It should be said that Professor Mills does not depend for the force of his argument on the imputation of motive. Given their training, their natural bias, their defective education, it is natural that, in good faith, the managers and the generals should behaye this way. And they are encouraged to do so by a mass culture in which certain funda- mental questions are not asked. Much of Professor Mills's anger is directed against the American educated classes, who accept the necessity of the cold war and of the domination of the American scene by the Pentagon and the corporations. They have been content to be treated as second-class citizens and to say ditto or keep their traps shut. They must now speak up.
With much of what Professor Mills has to day it is hard to disagree. Although the extent to which free thought and free speech were threatened in America was exaggerated, there was, in some measure there is, a refusal to face the facts of Soviet power (a refusal punctuated by panic) or the claims of the Soviet Government Or of its allies like Communist China. There is still a dangerous addiction to wishful thinking, to an
* THE GREAT POWERS: ESSAYS IN TWENTIETH CENTURY POLITICS. By Max Beloff. (Allen and Uawin, 20s.) THE CAUSES OF WORLD WAR III. By C. Wright Mills. (Seeker and Warburg, 15s.) expectation of the inevitable decline of so un- American a society as the Soviet Union, still too much easy and delusory classification of countries and regimes as pro- or anti-Russian. Any fresh voice—and Professor Mills's voice is fresh and loud—is welcome. So are some of his suggestions. 1 am all for the series of international centres scattered round the world, 'containing restaurants and sleeping quarters, multilingual stenographic pools and conference rooms of various sizes.' These are to house 'qualified cultural workmen of all nationalities.' The suspicion with which the American Government regards contact with Communist societies is silly and reflects a danger- ous state of mind. Then the allocation• of great funds (whether taken from the existing US military budget or not) for grants in aid to backward countries like India is most desirable. So is the cessation of atom-bomb tests. So is, as a guiding line, the assumption that war not Russia is nil the enemy.'
But, (here I can imagine the voice of Professor Beloff breaking in) the situation is not as simple as Professor Mills supposes. His tract, for all its virtues, reveals that illusion of American super- iority which critics have found so maddening. Although there are a few harsh words for the rulers of the USSR, this is an 4tacricult pro- gramme, that is what ,the US should do. But sup- pose the USSR. doesn't play? Suppose it does see itself as the destined heir of capitalism, coming into its inheritance by violence? We may hope. but it is too early as yet to assume, that the old- line rulers of the Soviet Union have given up Marxism-Leninism and that we can sit back 01 Europe in face of the overwhelming military superiority of Soviet power and have no fears. A good deal of -the present tension has been con- tributed by the IJS, but a lot more by the ,USSR. And it will take two to make peace. Yet, as a shock administered to the dominant American theory of world affairs, this is ,a most valuable book. It is often, too, a shrewd book. Professor Mills is.about the only American I have read who understands that falling back on soldiers for essentially civilian jobs is partly explained by the fact that the graduates of West Point, and Annapolis are the nearest,thing to a higher civil service that America affords. Professor Mills, too, notes the novelty of the role of the military if he does not sufficiently allow for the fact that this change in the economic and political role of the armed forces is not explicable simply in American terms. Americans would be rash to adopt all the bold programme advocated here, but they. would be wise to re-think some of their principles and practices; and, as Professor Mills, suggests, Con- gress, above all the Senate, might ask a few pet. tinent questions.
All Americans might ponder some of the ques- tions and suggestions put foFward by Professor Beloff. Professor Mills's simple views on the wickedness of European imperialism might be modified a little if he pondered some of the criticisms of American and Canadian moral superiority which are advanced here. For, rare in a collection of reprinted pieces, Professor Belot!' has produced a book with a general realistic theme. He is not indifferent to moral issues, he does not despair of the future, but he has not that optimistic American view that the wise and the good are easily discernible and easily attainable-- even when the price of not attaining them is as high as it is today. The liberation of the world from atomic fear, the closing of the breach be- tween the replete and the starving nations, these are the highest priorities of our politics. We learn from one book what should be done; from the other some highly relevant limitations on our powers of action and our hopes.
Previous page
