Political origins of the new diplomacy, 1917-1918

DURING the first World War one of the most controversial political issues inside Europe's major belligerent nations was war aims. In the Allied as well as in the Central countries the controversy over this issue of domestic and foreign policy became part of the struggle for power between the "parties of order" (predominantly the Right) and the "parties of movement" (predominantly the Left). The Right tended to favor expansionist war aims and the perpetuation of the Old Diplomacy as part of its determined effort to maintain the in ternal status quo. The Left pressed for nonannexationist war aims and the adoption of the New Diplomacy in its campaign to change the status quo. In this conflict between the Right and the Left lie some of the important political and ideological roots of the New Diplomacy.
A history and analysis of the politics of war aims from August 1914 to November 1918 in all the major belligerent nations could not be adequately handled in one volume. The chronological scope of the present study has therefore been limited to cover, primarily, only the period from March 1917 to January 1918.