Centenary Series: Exploring the International Affairs Archive

International Affairs has been a central part of the institute’s history, both as a record of speeches made by dignitaries such as Mahatma Gandhi and Henry Kissinger, and as a forum for policy-relevant academic research.

Updated 6 October 2020 2 minute READ

Delving into the International Affairs archive brings out stories behind some of the most significant players of the last century.

1931

Mohandas K. Gandhi on the future of India

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948), of course, needs little introduction. He was a lawyer who successfully led the movement for Indian independence from the British Empire. Trained as a barrister in London, Gandhi spent his early career in South Africa where he was involved with the fight to obtain civil rights for the Indian diaspora community.

He then returned to India and became a key actor in the Indian National Congress party, through which he pursued a non-violent campaign calling for the end of British rule. He was assassinated soon after India became independent in 1947, but continues to inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

In October 1931, Gandhi gave a speech at Chatham House, which was then transcribed in the journal. The meeting was chaired by the Marquess of Lothian (Philip Kerr), who became Under-Secretary of State for India the month after this speech. So it is interesting that he introduced Gandhi by noting that:

he thought Mr. Gandhi had accepted the invitation to speak at Chatham House because it was one of his convictions that the best way of arriving at the solution of any problem, political or social, was for the protagonists of rival views to meet one another and talk things out with sincerity and candour.

the Marquess of Lothian, Philip Kerr

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1948

Denis Healey

Denis Healey on the formation of the Cominform

Denis Healey (1917–2015) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Secretary of Defence and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. After graduating from university, Healey served in the Second World War with the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. He was the military landing officer for the British forces at the Battle of Anzio. As a Labour MP Healey represented the constituency of Leeds East from 1955–1992 and held several high-ranking positions in the Labour Party and the UK government.

Healey was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain from 1937 to 1940, and in 1948 he addressed Chatham House on the formation of Cominform, the alliance of communist parties in Europe, and the consolidation of Soviet power over European communist parties.

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1951

Konrad Adenauer on Germany’s position in post-war Europe

Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967) was the primary founder of the centre-right CDU party and the first Chancellor of post-war West Germany. As a prominent figure within the Weimar Republic’s moderate Centre Party, Adenauer was repeatedly arrested by the Nazis both prior to and during the Second World War.

After the war Adenauer founded the CDU and was elected Chancellor of West Germany from 1949–1963. In this capacity, Adenauer was responsible for establishing West Germany’s relationship with NATO, ending denazification and overseeing West German entrance into the EEC.

In 1951 as Chancellor of West Germany Adenauer gave an address to Chatham House on the subject of West Germany’s position in the emerging post-war international system.

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1964

Fidel Castro (left) lights his cigar while Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara looks on in the early days of their guerrilla campaign in the Sierra Maestra Mountains of Cuba, circa 1956. Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

Che Guevara writes about Cuba’s agricultural reforms

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara (1928–1967) was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary who played a central role in the Cuban revolution. Born in Argentina and initially trained as a doctor, Guevara became a key military commander in the Cuban revolution and remained an important figure in Casrto’s revolutionary government until 1965.

Following this Guevara distanced himself from the Cuban state and directly involved himself in armed revolutionary uprisings in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Bolivia. He was captured and executed by Bolivian Forces in 1967.

In October 1964, two months prior to his historic speech addressing the United Nations in New York, Guevara wrote in International Affairs on the history and future of the Cuban economy and its relation to the US, saying: ’American Imperialism is weaker than it seems: It is a giant with feet of clay’.

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1982

Henry Kissinger on British and American foreign policy

Henry Kissinger is an American academic and policymaker who fled Nazi Germany as a Jewish refugee aged 15, after which he served with the US army during the Second World War.

Following a prominent academic career, Kissinger became Secretary of State and National Security Advisor for the Nixon and Ford administrations. In these roles, Kissinger became one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, playing a key role in the thawing of US-China relations and US-Soviet diplomacy.

Kissinger has also been heavily criticized for role he played in government during the Vietnam war and in US support for numerous authoritarian regimes that committed genocide and mass human rights violations during his tenure.

In 1982, Kissinger addressed Chatham House on post-war British and American foreign policy:

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1990

Lord Howe at the Conservative Party conference, September 1993. Photo by Jeff Overs/BBC News & Current Affairs via Getty Images.

Geoffrey Howe on Britain’s role in the European Community

Sir Geoffrey Howe (1926–2015) was a senior British Conservative politician. Howe played a pivotal role in the rise of Thatcherism within the British Conservative Party, serving as Margaret Thatcher’s first Chancellor of the Exchequer and later as Foreign Secretary. In these capacities Howe oversaw the institution of Thatcher’s drastic shift in the domestic role of the British state, and contributed to Britain’s entrance into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.

Howe’s resignation speech citing disagreements over Britain’s role in the European Community (EC) on the 13th of November 1990 was credited as the beginning of the end for Margaret Thatcher’s premiership. In June of the same year, Howe addressed the London School of Economics on the future of Britain’s relationship with the EC. The speech was published in International Affairs in October 1990, just a month before his resignation.

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Chatham House Centenary 2020 Stamp

 

 

 

 

 

Chatham House Centenary
As part of the Chatham House Centenary in 2020, each month International Affairs presents its top ten articles from a given decade - all of them available to read for free. 

Read more from the whole series.

At the end of the year, the series finishes with an examination of the archive’s core lessons and clear omissions, in particular reflecting on how the journal and the discipline more broadly have evolved in terms of representation in the last century.