2 DECEMBER 1972, Page 17

Willy Brandt:

being in a position to dominate the rest. His piece is strikingly pertinent to the policies of Kissinger and Chou En-lai, to the restoration of a world balance after bipolarity.

Next come the papers on specific aspects of theory. The other Australian, Professor Arthur Burns, demolishes effectively and readably the pretentious pseudo-science and absurd generalisations of some American strategic theories, while showing that something useful has been achieved. Professor Geoffrey Goodwin of LSE is benignly iconoclastic about the naive fallacies that have grown up round the relation of economics to international affairs; and discusses the analogy of the market, bargaining theory and the role of risk with political competition between states. Equally valuable and of greater general interest is Professor Claude of Virginia's amusing essay on the mythology of international organisations. Bodies like the UN are not alternatives to states, and are only relevant insofar as groups of states use them for their purposes. This paper, so different in tone from Butterfield's, touches it at many points. Professor Manning on international law is admirable but specialised. Mr William Olsen of the Rockefeller Foundation covers some major American writings still unknown and unpublished here.

So much for theory. The papers on various aspects of international politics are a mixed bunch. Professor Hinsley on nationalism is a pleasure to read, in the same vein as his 'Power and the Pursuit of Peace.' Once he has the ball he will dodge past you and score his try, argue as you will. The two eminent Oxonians, Michael Howard now at All Souls on 'Changes in the Use of Force,' and Alistair Buchan now at Balliol on Technology,' both bring their sober understanding of war and strategy to bear on the central problems of the force that is always latent in the relations between states. Professor Hugh Seton Watson on ideology discusses national self-determination, in which his father had quite a part, communism on which he himself is an authority, and other isms. But I wish he had tackled the general relation of ideology to international politics. Professor Hans Morgenthau, who from Chicago has done more than anyone else to make the concept of the national interest intelligible in its modern context, brings his usual clarity to the subject of great powers and superpowers; but this piece is not one of his best. Lady Jackson (Barbara Ward) argues the case for the Third World she has argued before, as decisively as ever. It is unfortunate for her that her paper is printed between two of the best and most original in the collection, Goodwin and Claude. Professor Duroselle of the Sorbonne is a disappointment.

And what about readers of The Spectator who take an intelligent interest in foreign affairs, but do not want to get to grips with the rival theories — who prefer prose to algebra? My advice to them is to read the two papers which combine the most insight with the most readability: the Butterfield and the Claude.