A Further Perspective
The Precedented Peace Prize
Sir Norman Angell won in 1933 for the same reasons Barack Obama has won in 2009.
The Nobel Prize Committee has been faulted for awarding the 2009 Peace Prize to someone short on concrete accomplishments. Critics, however, should realize that President Barack Obama’s Peace prize is not unprecedented. Another Peace Prize recipient, Sir Norman Angell, won the prize primarily for his ideas, philosophy, and aspirations for the world. And the philosophy that earned Angell his Nobel had a profound influence on world history.
President Obama’s received his Peace Prize, according to the Nobel Committee, for his “efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between nations.” Norman Angell’s Nobel was awarded for similar reasons.
Neither a diplomat nor great statesman, Angell was primarily a writer, an author of books and leader of academic discourse. When awarding Angell his Peace Prize, the Nobel Committee stated “in the work of international peace, there must be a division of labor between technicians and educators.” Angell, they noted, was “an educator, one of those who instruct public opinion, who pave the way for reforms.”
Angell authored numerous books constructing his model for international relations. These included Patriotism Under Three Flags, and his most popular, The Great Illusion. The latter’s central thesis, according the Nobel Committee, is “war is an inadequate method for solving international disputes.” The Great Illusion advocated for a system of international interdependence and a world where large powerful nations did not have greater international relevance than smaller weak nations. Obama’s address to the United Nations tracked Angell’s philosophy so closely it would be surprising if the similarities were accidental.
Angell wistfully advocated for “relinquishing the principle of isolated national defence…and erecting an international authority” to replace “the self interest of individual nations.” The Nobel Committee described Angell as “cool and clear,” and that he “spoke to the intellect.” Most notably, Angell argued, “you cannot kill ideas with bullets.” He believed that an enlightened citizenry, once someone or something enlightened them, would render war obsolete.
Norman Angell won the Nobel in 1933, a most dangerous year for his ideas to gain currency. In January 1933, Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany. And in the following years, Norman Angell’s ideas flourished and were adopted as policy by a British Government unwilling to acknowledge the Gathering Storm. Winston Churchill, however, regularly and vociferously opposed Angell and his allies. It took Churchill’s courage to stand against this national naïveté throughout the 1930s, usually alone, and always jeered in the House of Commons. The British government followed Angell’s model for international relations and ignored Churchill, adopting timid diplomatic and defense policies.
The 1933 Peace Prize winner profoundly influenced British policy in ways that led directly to German tanks rolling into Poland in September 1939. War did not break out because nations ignored Angell’s advice; instead, the ensuing carnage in Europe happened because European democracies made Angell’s ideas government policy. Europe gambled that Angell’s model would ensure peace, and by the time everyone saw that the gamble had failed, it was too late. Winston Churchill rose to greatness precisely because he opposed, from the beginning, the philosophy of a Nobel Peace Prize winner whose name few now recognize.
Ultimately, the idea of Nazism was killed with millions of bullets and bombs, and millions more brave men and women. Confronting bloodthirsty evil demands more than dialog.
Angell’s arguments were comfortable in 1933 for the same reasons many today find comfort in the primacy of negotiation as the best tool to confront militant Islam, Iranian nukes or a belligerent Russia: prosperous nations are deluded into thinking talk is always the best way to preserve prosperity. Your familiar comfort and daily routine simply cannot be inconvenienced by wars or rumors of wars. The lessons of an entire century, both Neville Chamberlain’s errors, and Ronald Reagan’s successes, aren’t enough to shake awake a populace blessed with comfort and material satisfaction.
Churchill, responding directly to Angell, asked “who is the man vain enough to suppose that the long antagonisms of history and of time can in all circumstances be adjusted by the smooth and superficial conventions of politicians and ambassadors?” The Nobel Committee may have answered Sir Winston’s query for the 21st century.
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drudge ette obama| 10.30.09 @ 6:31AM
I knew when I glanced at this topic that it would be interesting. This short piece is much more than that. It is prophetic.
And that final quote from Churchill sent chills down my spine. I, unlike many today, actually have a spine. And I intend to use it.
We don't have to reach too far back in history to find answers.
Pingback| 10.30.09 @ 7:27AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : The Precedented Peace Prize [spectat links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Roark| 10.30.09 @ 7:47AM
If there are any Republican candidates with the cajones to read this site they will use the Churchill quote as the cornerstone of his 2012 run for the Presidency. The Republican that wasn't born with cajones could however be the one that could pull this off.
Le Cracquere| 10.30.09 @ 11:59AM
I only wish a Republican candidate could do so. Unfortunately, the persons whom that quote ought to abash probably couldn't quite unravel what it's saying.
Stunned| 10.30.09 @ 8:27AM
This was an amazing read. It says an awful lot about exactly what's going on and where we're headed. It takes a tremendous amount of work and preparation to keep a nation safe, and BO's doing neither "work" nor "preparation" its safe to say.
Martin| 10.30.09 @ 10:07AM
Neither Chamberlain nor even Baldwin followed Normal Angell; they were Conservatives and he was a pinko. Chamberlain's view in 1938 was that Eastern Europe should be no concern of Britain; it never had been -- we could do nothing to help directly, and couldn't have even in 1815. Hitler could only be stopped, if he needed to be stopped, only by getting the Americans off their fat asses. Without them a second war would be suicide for the British Empire, the greatest civilizing force the world has ever known.
Chamberlain was absolutely right. Churchill was a drunken populist mountebank, who destroyed British civilization.
Sometimes one needs to correct error and tell it like it is.
L. Ross| 10.30.09 @ 11:25AM
Wow, Martin.
Big tip of the hat for having the common sense and courage to uplift Neville Chamberlain and slander Winston Churchill in one short paragraph. Well Done, sir.
Le Cracquere| 10.30.09 @ 12:05PM
"Sometimes one needs to correct error and tell it like it is"? Fair enough.
Had Britain rejected Churchill and hung back as you (presumably) advise, it would have forfeited its claim as a civilization or "civilizing force" of any description. The "suicide" you allude to would have been redundant.
Steve Buckingham| 10.30.09 @ 6:19PM
Hitler could have been stopped very easily and cheaply had Britain and France opposed him when he remilitarized the Rhineland, in violation of the Versailles Treaty. Hitler himself was ready to back down at the first sign of resistance. The fact that the British and French did nothing was what gave Hitler the confidence to press on, and the result was WWII.
Old Joe| 10.30.09 @ 11:18AM
Martin,
What world are you living in?
John II| 10.30.09 @ 1:11PM
Fascinating. Even if Obama knows nothing (and he doesn't seem to know much) about Angell himself, he obviously knows the mindset. Explains why he had the bust of Churchill removed from the oval office as one of his first symbolic gestures.
Explains too why the Afghans and Pakistanis are starting to behave as if in anticipation of American waffling and treachery. They're starting to smell the Vietnam syndrome.
And I was hoping I'd be able to cash in my chips before I had to witness all that again.
Ammo Guy| 10.30.09 @ 1:42PM
Whew, this is possibly the last website at which I would trash the great Churchill since I know that RET is a longtime friend of Sir Martin Gilbert and dines with him on occasion. All I can say is “trash with trepidation” should RET deign to post with the rest of us unworthies.
Big Leo| 10.30.09 @ 3:56PM
My father's contribution to historical theory was his theory of navies which he told us about frequently, whether we wanted to hear it or not. Before WW2, he believed we should have a large navy capable of thoroughly thrashing any two enemies. When the Japanese attacked us, he considered that his belief was justified. As he said, "If you are too stupid to look invulnerable, someone else will be stupid enough to think they can get away with attacking you." He was no Mahon or Toybee, but he had his moments.
If you desire peace, prepare for war.
Charles Martel| 10.30.09 @ 4:13PM
Ammo: If RET was going to join any thread, it would be one on this subject, so yes, beware.
Leo: Amen, brother!
Richard| 10.30.09 @ 6:22PM
Those who long for peace, MUST prepare for war.
Mickey| 10.30.09 @ 9:39PM
I've heard both sides of the argument about the cause of WWII from numerous writers like Buchanan and others. I'm not so sure that parts of both explanations aren't tinged with truth, but in hindsight it was expedient to get rid of the axis triumvirate, and maybe should have let Patton go to Moscow, too.
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Marc Jeric| 11.2.09 @ 4:38AM
The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, our Abu Hussein from Kenya and Community Organizer-in-Chief, together with his ACORN and SEIU and teacher unions local soviets, has more that talks with terrorists in mind for us. Also his komissars (36 czars) are essential for his plans of making the USA into the USSA before his first term is over.
Seneca| 11.2.09 @ 10:46AM
Norman Angell was all that, but in 1933 he got off a line which is at least partially redemptive. He proposed, as a solution to almost all problems in American higher education, that all Americans be given an A.B. degree at birth.
SJC48| 11.2.09 @ 12:22PM
Oppression
Struggle
Freedom
Achievement
Prosperity
Complacency
Dependence
Oppression
I think we are in the Complacency stage.
Michael W. Perry | 11.3.09 @ 2:19PM
Those who'd like to better understand Angell and the modern brand of pacifism that he inspired, might want to get a copy of Chesterton on War and Peace (2008). There, GKC has much to say about Angell. Here's a 1913 remark:
"I remember that Mr. Norman Angell, though an able writer, tied himself into a most curious knot on this part of the question. He proved — or at least, attempted with no little ingenuity to prove — that war was never in the long run materially profitable, even to the victorious party; that winning a battle, in short, was as much waste of money as losing it. All this part of his argument he set forth in a manner that was lucid and by no means unconvincing. Then, of course, people with a rather more spirited (and spiritual) turn of mind asked him in return: “But what am I to do if I am wronged? Is a nation never to defend its frontiers or a populace its liberty because they may be the poorer at the end of the struggle?” To this Mr. Norman Angell made a most extraordinary answer. He said, in effect, that when poor old Europe had grown pure and sweet enough to believe in his gospel of peace, she would also have risen against such little weaknesses as crushing a mob or humbling an enemy. But, unfortunately, he had just been explaining his gospel of peace; and it did not involve any purity or sweetness at all. He had proved to his own satisfaction that everyone ought to avoid war for purely selfish reasons."
After World War I began, Chesterton's criticism of Angell and his followers became even more scathing. Here is one from 1918. His opening remarks seem written of Obama.
"But no such lingering grace clings to the remarkable young man I have in my mind. He is cold, he is caddish, he is an intellectual bully, and his intellect is itself vapid and thin. He is marked by an imaginative insufficiency which can be compared to nothing except to finding a Commander, in the thick of battle, looking into a pocket-mirror instead of a field-glass. I remember a debate nearly four years ago in which some followers of Mr. Norman Angell tried to persuade me that, by our moral progress, we had outgrown the very notion of war. When I pointed out that even to abandon war, merely to make money, indicated no moral progress at all, a young Cambridge man put his head on one side and said, “My ethics are not at all ascetic.” I can see him still, with his eye cocked up at a corner of the ceiling, and the white light from a high window falling on his funny little head. It happened to be the very day when the Austrian ultimatum went to Serbia."
Almost a century ago Chesterton did an excellent job of explaining why, "Pacifism and Prussianism [Militarism] are always in an alliance, by a fatal logic far beyond any conscious conspiracy." What he said then just as relevant today, when Pacifism and Radical Islam seem locked in an alliance.
And yes, I edited the book and wrote its copious notes to put his remarks in context. But the brilliance of the book is Chesterton's and not mine. I recommend it highly, as does the American Chesterton Society, which recently awarded it the best Chesterton book of the year.
--Michael W. Perry, Seattle
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