ABSTRACT
In the relations between states, more obviously perhaps than in any other field, the operative decisions are necessarily, under modern conditions, taken by a small group of people, the rulers or the government. But they will be influenced in their decisions by the accepted ideas in their community of the general aims that statesmen ought to set before themselves and the general principles on which they should act, both in their relations to other states and in their actions within their own state. The situation is complicated when the threat to independence comes, or is thought to come, from economic relations, when, for instance, one country becomes dependent upon another for essential goods or services. The general notion of Internationalism, in spite of occasional and momentary outbursts of enthusiasm, has little emotional appeal.
