Experiment in internationalism

This is the first study in depth of the international political activity of the European Liberal Parties in the twenty years since the war. It describes how the Liberal International came to be established, the ideas and personalities behind it, the difficulties that had to be faced in securing co-operation between Liberals of widely differing national backgrounds and the tech niques used to overcome them. The book also deals with the formation of an international corpus of liberal thought in the changing world conditions that followed the war, with particular emphasis on European integration, Atlantic co-operation and the conflict between the free and communist worlds.

The author, who was largely responsible for the creation of the Liberal International and who served as its secretary general until 1957, has travelled Europe continuously in the twenty years covered by this book and has been in constant personal touch with most of the leading Liberals during that time. He has also made two lengthy visits to the United States and Canada on behalf of the organization, and his chapter on the differences between European and American Liberal thought is of particular interest.

Although Experiment in Internationalism is written for the general reader, it is also of importance to the serious student of politics, since it opens up an entirely new field of political study, namely the techniques of international political co-operation on a non-govern ment level, a subject which is becoming of increasing interest as regionalism develops in many parts of the -world.