Nations, Empires and the World [1957]

PAPER 51 APPLIES Russell’s historical understanding of nationalism and imperialism to the Suez crisis and to the possibility of easing the kind of tensions which had precipitated it. The essay was published as “Every Nation Is a Bully at Heart”, Maclean’s Magazine, 70, no. 5 (2 March 1957): 2, 48 (B&R C57.05). The “morality (or immorality) of nationalism” was among several topics proposed by the articles editor of Maclean’s, Ian Sclanders, in his letter to Russell of 11 December 1956. Sclanders stressed that Russell was free to “deal with any subject of wide general interest but we do like the approach to be controversial, fresh and preferably unorthodox”. In accepting the commission at payment of three hundred dollars for three thousand words, Russell expressed a wish to write about “the claims of nationalism and internationalism with special reference to the Middle East. The problem is to present internationalism as something distinct from both Western and Soviet imperialism. Unadulterated nationalism leaves all vital problems unsolved” (18 Dec. 1956). From this germ of an idea, Russell dictated his text on 8 January 1957. He used the following set of enumerated points, also dictated:

1. Nationalism and a Liberal Principle (Mazzini) 2. Liberty and Law 3. Imperialism 4. Nationalism and anarchy 5. Separation of Internationalism from Imperialism 6. Internationalism and the East-West conflict: the Veto 7. Need of East-West modus vivendi 8. What powers an international authority should have

The copy-text is the typescript carbon, dated 8 January 1957 and made from the dictated manuscript in Edith Russell’s hand (RAI 220.022440).