Policy-Makers and Opinion
| Author | A.M. Rendel |
| Published date | 01 March 1975 |
| Date | 01 March 1975 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070207503000107 |
| Subject Matter | Diplomatic Method |
A.M.
RENDEL
Policy-makers
and
opinion
Looking
back
over
a
span of
years
which
began
as
a
student
seek-
ing
a place
in
the
British
diplomatic
service
in
the
early
1930s,
I
am
struck
by
one
fundamental
change
in
the
practice
of
diplomacy
throughout
that
whole
period.
The
impact
of
public
opinion
upon
diplomacy
has
continuously
increased,
is
still
increasing,
and,
I
believe,
ought not
to
be
diminished.
As
a
corollary to
that,
the
ways
in
which governments
seek
to
win the approval of
the
public
for
their
foreign
policy have
also
become
far
more complex
and
professional.
Up
to
the
First
World
War certainly,
but
also
well
beyond
it
to
the
midwar
years,
national
interest
was
the
guiding
force
be-
hind
foreign
policy,
but
it
was
interpreted
by
a
small
'ruling
class.'
As
a
keen
young
student
of
the
international
arena,
I
can
well
remember
how
surprising
it
seemed to
me
that
so
many
among
even
the
well-educated
intelligent
professional
classes in
Europe
(and
even
more
across
the
Atlantic),
whose
lives
had
been
entirely
changed
by
the
First
World
War, thought
that
foreign
affairs
was
not
a
matter
which
need
concern
the
ordinary
voter.
Today
over
a
large
part
of
the globe,
wherever
at
least
public
opinion
is
a
reality
-
and not
merely
the
synthetic
product
of
a
one-party
line,
it
is
public
opinion
which
decides
the
major
issues,
and
decides
them
taking
much
more
elaborate
and
complicated
factors
into
account
than
national interest
alone.
In
the
nine-
teenth
century European
statesmen
carved
up
the map
as
selfishly
as
they could,
disregarding
the
moral
framework
within
which
private
life
at
home
was
conducted.
Today
leaders
who
flout
the
The
author
has
been
the
diplomatic
correspondent
for
The
Times
since
1953.
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