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Neutrality and the Emergence of the Concept of Neutralism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Extract

Recently, Mr. Nehru, in one of his more censorious moods, complained of the manner in which words lose their meaning in cold war terminology. Such a complaint might well have provoked the reply that Mr. Nehru is as much a sinner as sinned against, and that the varying descriptions of India's foreign policy display a degree of slipperiness equal with that of “free world,” “peace,” and “democracy” — the “masked words” he mentioned. Ironically, it was the cold war which engendered the connotations that have given neutralism its chameleon cloak. And while popular usage readily applies the term to India, Indian spokesmen provide implicit support for the firm contention of those who insist that neutralism is essentially “a subjective term.” No doubt Indian equivocation, which is far from unique, is easily explicable. For a language attuned to the compulsions and contingencies of political life is often unavoidably ambiguous; and the political “isms,” which so proliferate today, seem to act as semantic vortices, blurring and engrossing the meaning of words of more ancient lineage.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1960

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References

1 The Times December 9, 1958.

2 Mr. Nehru's latest biographer reports that “the term to describe Indian foreign policy has undergone frequent change. It began with ‘neutrality’ or ‘dynamic neutrality,’ later became ‘neutralism’ and then ‘non-alignment.’ Nehru prefers the phrase ‘positive policy for peace,’ he told the author in New Delhi on 13 June 1956.” Brecher, Michael, Nehru. A Political Biography (London, 1959), p. 563, footnote 2Google Scholar. Mr. Nehru's testimonies on other occasions have been somewhat different: “I do not like the word neutralism which is commonly used in wartime. In peacetime it indicates a sort of war mentality. India's neutralism meant simply that they had an independent policy and judged questions on their merits.” MrNehru, reported in The Times, 07 7, 1956Google Scholar. Cf. MrNehru's, speech in Lok Sabha Debates, 03 29, 1956, cols. 37293730Google Scholar.

3 “Yes; and words, if they are not watched will do deadly work sometimes. There are masked words droning and skulking about us … there are masked words abroad, I say, which nobody understands, but which everybody uses … for such words wear chameleon cloaks.” Ruskin, John (1893) in Sesame and Lilies (London, 1899), pp. 2223Google Scholar.

4 Cf. Menon, Krishna: “Neutralism is an inept word used during a war. You are not belligerent in peacetime. The word has no meaning.” New York Times, 07 16, 1956Google Scholar. But an editorial in The Hindu (Madras), December 20, 1955, spoke otherwise: “What the Western Powers have to realize is that neutralism is a force that is worthy of the greatest respect even in these days of nuclear warfare.”

5 Economist, March 10, 1956, p. 574.

6 Oxford English Dictionary, Vol. VII (Oxford, 1908), p. 110Google Scholar. “Neutralism —maintenance of neutrality.” Funk, and Wagnalls, , New Standard Dictionary of the English Language, (New York, 1949), p. 1670Google Scholar. “Neutralism—the spirit and practice of neutrality.” The two words are used coterminously in Kundra, J. C., Neutrality in the Past and Present (New Delhi, 1957), p. 2Google Scholar; in Morgenthau, Hans J., “Neutrality and Neutralism” in Dilemmas of Politics (Chicago 1958), pp. 185209Google Scholar; and in Modjoryan, L. “Neutrality,” New Times (Moscow), 02 16, 1956, p. 12Google Scholar.

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9 Neutralism 1579. W. Wilkinson. Confut. Familye of Love. “Our owne Neutralisme and lukewarmnes shall utterly condemnes us.”

10 Definitions of legal neutrality are legion. Some representative references are cited in Komarnicki, T., “The Place of Neutrality in the Modern System of International Law.” Recueil des Cours, Academie de droit international de la Haye (1952), IGoogle Scholar.

11 Diplomatic or political neutrality connotes a state of fact, two parties in conflict and a third adopting a policy or attitude of being on neither side.

12 Fenwick, G. G., “The legal aspects of neutralism,” American Journal of International Law (hereafter AJIL), 01 1957, p. 7174Google Scholar.

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16 Livy, XXXII, 21.

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22 Even if we grant Professor Northrop's firm contention that the policies of the Founding Fathers are the true analogues for present-day neutralism (Northrop, F. S. C., “Neutralism and United States Foreign Policy,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences [07 1957, 4268])Google Scholar, it is as well to remember that United States neutrality — more usually described as isolationism — invariably tended to be more a question of unilateral decision and of domestic enactment than of conforming with the prevailing international law and practice of neutrality. The spate of U. S. neutrality legislation in the 1930's was but the continuation of a practice begun in 1794. The U. S. was one of the three signatory states that did not ratify the Hague Conventions of 1907 and to date it has not ratified the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

23 “It is not unreasonable to ask of those ‘Religions of the Future’ which the present day so prodigally announces that they will equip themselves with a substantial shape, with a worship, a ministry and a flock before we legislate for popular education in accordance with their exigencies. But when we have done this, this neutralism will be at an end, denominationalism will have made them prisoners; the denominationalism of Groningen or Tubingen, instead of that of Utrecht or Geneva.” Arnold, Matthew, Popular Education on the Continent (London 1861), pp. 221222Google Scholar. A year earlier Walter Bagehot had used the word “indifferentism” in a roughly equivalent sense. See Bagehot's, essay on Gladstone in Biographical Studies (London, 1895), p. 95Google Scholar.

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25 A convenient source is the British General Staff publication, Daily Review of the Foreign Press, Allied Press Supplement (London 19161919) in 6 volsGoogle Scholar.

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36 Ibid., p. 114.

37 Bundy, McGeorge, “Isolationists & Neutralists: A sketch in Similarities,” Confluence (06, 1952), p. 7078Google Scholar.

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54 Le Figaro Litteraire, February 17, 1951.

56 Bourdet, Claude, “The Way to European Independence” The New Reasoner (Summer, 1958), 1213Google Scholar.