Incidents and International Relations: People, Power, and Personalities

Gregory C. Kennedy · Keith Neilson

Feb 2002 · Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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Historians often ignore, treat cursorily, or relegate to footnotes specific incidents in international relations in order to facilitate the construction of a larger narrative. The contributors to this volume argue that researchers do so to their peril, as individual or seemingly isolated incidents can play significant roles in the overall course of history. Incidents are crucial in determining the mental maps that decision makers form regarding the countries and individuals with whom they interact. Incidents can either initiate or block new policies with consequences that are both far-reaching and unexpected.

People make foreign policy and an understanding of what elements of an incident were important to these individuals at key points essential to an appreciation of policies subsequently advocated. How individuals view other cultures and nations, how they react to the actions of such nations, and their perceptions of such actions all form key components in this study. Using a variety of examples, these essays show the value of detailed examinations of events, illuminating such matters as British policy in the Far East, French imperial policy, Italian military actions in the interwar period, British attitudes toward Hitler, and the effect of the Soviet Union on British thinking in the 1930s.

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GREGORY C. KENNEDY is a lecturer at the Joint Services Command and Staff College. A specialist in Anglo-American relations and military history, he is the author of Imperial Crossroads: The Influence of the Far East on Anglo-American Relations, 1933-1939.

KEITH NEILSON is a Professor of History at the Royal Military College of Canada. He is the author of Strategy and Supply: The Anglo-Russian Alliance, 1914-17 and Britain and the Last Tsar: British Policy and Russia, 1894-1917.