After declaring its total support for the war in October 1914, the Labour party almost completely ignored debates about international policy for the following two years. All attempts to discuss the causes of the conflict or the shape of the post-war world were resisted on the grounds that they were a distraction from the main goal – the military defeat of Germany – and probably inspired by ‘pacifism’. Even the War Emergency Committee, which after 1916 began to think creatively about domestic policy, deliberately kept off international affairs for most of its existence.

In contrast, among other progressive politicians and intellectuals, the war led to a fundamental reassessment of ideas about international affairs and, consequently, a period of intense creativity. In this regard, historians of the Labour party have tended to concentrate upon the ideas developed by the UDC, the organisation formed by dissenting left-wing Liberals on the outbreak of the war. It was to these ideas that Labour is said to have looked for inspiration in 1917, when the party decided to reconsider the nature of its support for the war.

Taylor's The troublemakers, has been extremely influential in this regard. He suggested, in his inimitable style, that ‘the Labour movement under Henderson's guidance, set out [in 1917] to create its own foreign policy. Thus resolved where could it turn for ideas? Only to the UDC. The Union had staked its claim to provide an alternative foreign policy.