ABSTRACT
One of the most puzzling aspects of international politics is the stubborn way in which the ordinary citizen refuses to bother his head about the questions which really trouble the diplomats. The mere mention of recent diplomatic events ought to dispel the illusion that the line-up in Europe is cultural or national. The diplomats have even had a programme for the peaceful organization of backward countries. Their formula has been "the preservation of their integrity and the open door to the commerce of all nations". The world-wide struggle between Great Britain and Germany has not been over the national boundaries of Europe. It was the memory of diplomatic defeats, the fear of future defeats, that in July, 1914, had made European diplomacy incapable of preserving the peace. The struggle had hardened the governing mind to a point where stubborn insistence and uninventive appeals for peace were all that was left.
