Unreal States and the Folly of People: Human Security and G. L. Dickinson’s Public Education for Reforming International Relations

Abstract

This article explores the prototype of human security by examining public opinion in a pamphlet titled The War and the Way Out (1917). It was written by a British liberal internationalist, G. Lowes Dickinson, who has been known to be interested in public opinion as a political force. Most research has regarded public opinion as a passive recipient to be educated, leaving the question of what active part the public could play in politics. Yet, the active role of public opinion has been crucial to the promotion of human security and of international security. Dickinson’s pamphlet demonstrated two steps by which public opinion could be active: independent thinking about international relations from individual perspectives and a contractual relationship between people and states. Although emphasising people instead of states, Dickinson’s idea about security still relied on states as institutions as well as educated people as an independent agency. This thinking was based on colonialism and elitism that civilised people and states should guide the rest. While the discussion of public opinion has often been located either in the lineage of elitism or democratic control of foreign policy, this paper illustrates that both were included in liberal internationalism and thinking about security.