This book explores the development, character, and legacy of the ideology of liberal internationalism in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain. Liberal internationalism provided a powerful way of theorising and imagining international relations, and it dominated well-informed political discourse at a time when Britain was the most powerful country in the world. Its proponents focused on securing progress, generating order and enacting justice in international affairs. Liberal internationalism united a diverse group of intellectuals and public figures, and it left a lasting legacy in the twentieth century. This book elucidates the roots, trajectory, and diversity of liberal internationalism, focusing in particular on three intellectual languages – international law, philosophy and history – through which it was promulgated. Finally, it traces the impact of these ideas across the defining moment of the First World War. The liberal internationalist vision of the late-nineteenth century remained popular well into the twentieth century and forms an important backdrop to the development of the academic study of International Relations in Britain.

Exploring the development, character and legacy of the ideology of liberal internationalism in the late 19th and early 20th century Britain, this book focuses on the three international languages - international law, philosophy and history - through which it was promulgated.

An innovative study of the pre-history of the League of Nations, tracing the pro-League movement's unexpected development.

This study provides an original conception of liberalism that accounts for its internal contradictions and explains the current crisis of liberal internationalism. Examining the disjuncture between liberal theory and practice, it offers a firmer grasp on the historical role of liberalism in world politics.

This book will be the first to examine the variety of British international thought, its continuities and innovations. The editors combine new essays on familiar thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes and John Locke with important but neglected writers and publicists such as Travers Twiss, James Bryce, and Lowes Dickinson.