From 1918 to 1945 the British Labour Party worked closely with some of the most prominent names in international relations (IR) scholarship. Through such structures as the ""Advisory Committee on International Questions,"" academic IR specialists were instrumental in the construction of Labour foreign policy, preparing a wealth of memoranda, reports and pamphlets for the Party.

Here Lucian Ashworth examines the crucial role played by IR theorists. He puts the international theories of five key writers - Leonard Woolf, H.N. Brailsford, Philip Noel Baker, Norman Angell and David Mitrany...