The book investigates the role of popular liberal internationalism as a social movement in Britain using Gramscian and Foucauldian ideas of civil society. It addresses the use of force for peace through an examination of the impact of civil society actors in popular liberal internationalism between the world wars.Preface Introduction: Liberal Internationalism, a Social Movement for Peace Governance: Ideological and Political Trespass Education: Democratic Accountability and Paper Guarantees Disarmament: White Robes of Peace or Jackboots and Spurs? Innovation: Arming the League with Air Power Resistance: Pacifism and the Power of Defiance Imperialism: Economic Security and Sanctions Revisionism: Rearmament and Peaceful Change Conclusion: Retrenchment, Reform and Colonisation Appendix I: Group Memberships Appendix II: Circulation Figures
In this excellent book, Pugh very clearly establishes the role and significance of social and political movements in the development of foreign and defence policy [...] I commend this book to all who want to understand why peace movements
and other social movements for progressive social change are important. - International Peacekeeping
'With impeccable scholarship, Michael Pugh offers novel insights into interwar liberal internationalism in Britain. Erudite and authoritative, this account will rightly become an indispensable point of reference for students and scholars alike.'
- Richard Caplan, Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford, UK
'This is an important and erudite book. The 1930s are often seen as a 'lost decade' in
which appeasement led inevitably to the Second World War. Michael Pugh's careful
reading of the period reveals a much more complex story in which peace movements
had considerable success in laying down the foundations of what would later become