Security, prestige, and realpolitik: Sir Eyre Crowe and British foreign policy 1907-1925

Sir Eyre Crowe is known to historians primarily as the author of the 1907 Memorandum on French and German relations in which he concluded that Britain must maintain the Entente with France because Germany's aim was to gain hegemony over Europe. He was also arguably the central figure of the British Foreign Office for the first two-and-a-half decades of the twentieth century, and his career in the Foreign Office spanned forty years.;The first goal of this dissertation is to bring him out from behind the shadows of the foreign secretaries under whom he served and reveal him as a statesman in his own right. The second aim is to examine Crowe's conception of foreign policy and place it within the larger context of British history. Before World War I Crowe was in congruence with the British government in that both saw the balance of power as the best means to ensure British security. After the war, Crowe was skeptical about the idea of collective security and preferred a return to a balance of power model. Crises caused by unresolved security and reparations issues prompted Crowe to change his thinking, and he became a supporter of a kind of collective security that found its final expression in the Locarno treaties of 1925.;This dissertation makes use of Crowe's minutes, memoranda, and his private papers in its examination of early twentieth century British foreign policy which was shaped by concerns of security and prestige. Crowe viewed international relations differently as a result of his German background and he injected a dose of German Realpolitik into a British Foreign Office that needed his unflinchingly realistic vision of international relations.;His ability to identify and anticipate problems, clearly articulate them, and arrive at possible solutions, as well as his willingness to not look away from unpleasant realities made him unique in the Foreign Office. Even though he held no political office and was never Foreign Secretary, Crowe was nonetheless a great statesman in his own right. His judgment was not infallible, but his prescience about international relations, especially in Europe, would prove correct.