Jawahar Lal Nehru's world view: theory of international relations

THIS IS A CASE STUDY of Jawaharlal Nehru's theory of international relations. It attempts to describe his explana tion of why states behave as they do and the reforms he is trying to bring about in the present inter-state system. Al though some secondary sources have been used to ascertain Nehru's views, chief reliance has been placed on the consid erable volume of his own expressions-speeches, books, inter views, press conferences, and articles-that have been in creasing steadily in quantity for approximately forty years. The material for a detailed and definitive study will not be available, of course, until some years after Nehru's death. But enough material is available now to suggest the major lines of his thought; and that is what I have tried to describe.

My major interest is not in Nehru himself, however, de spite the fact that he is one of the most fascinating people of our time. I am equally interested in anyone who is the man ager of the foreign policy of a significant state. My major in terest is in promoting my own and others' understanding of international relations; and understanding is likely to be deepened by a knowledge of the basic assumptions, theories, goals, interests, convictions, and what not that are in the heads of the practical politicians who make and execute the foreign policies of important states. Whether their ideas are unique or commonplace, crude or refined, gruesomely realis tic or sublimely utopian they are important if they are in the heads of the men whose decisions significantly affect the behavior of states. It is by a study of the intellectual under currents in the minds of such leaders that we learn what they are trying to do and why they are trying to do it. Their diplomatic moves can be understood better by this depth probing behind them. And once we have enough case studies of this type, it may be possible to do some generalizing about international relations that has not been possible hitherto.

I am not at all certain that I have done justice to Nehru at all points, despite my best efforts to understand his thinking. But Nehru has not made doing justice to him easy. With both the written and spoken word he has had tendencies to be so verbose and so vague that it is often difficult to cut through the flood of words and ambiguities to get at his meaning. What he seems to enjoy most in the way of expres sion is sheer intellectual rambling. He appears to have an aversion to speaking or writing systematically, as if moving from point to point in accordance with a prepared scheme would somehow cramp the impetuous and perpetual action of his mind.

But the effort to discover what has been going on in Nehru's head is rewarding. His mind is a provocative and stimulating one that has been working continually on public problems for over half a century; and some of his thought would be worth examining even were he not the important political leader he happens to be. He very definitely has a message for the world and it is a message worthy of the world's attention. His goal seems to be to adapt Gandhi's teachings to international relations; and although this has required much modifying, cutting, and re-fitting, the basic principles of the Gandhi philosophy are evident throughout.