The Twenty Years' Crisis: 1919–1939: An Introduction to the Study of International Relations is a book on international relations written by E. H. Carr. The book was written in the 1930s shortly before the outbreak of World War II in Europe and the first edition was published in September 1939, shortly after the war's outbreak; a second edition was published in 1945. In the revised edition, Carr did not "re-write every passage which had been in someway modified by the subsequent course of events", but rather decided "to modify a few sentences" and undertake other small efforts to improve the clarity of the work.
In the book, Carr advances a realist theory of international politics, as well as a critique of what refers to as the utopian vision of liberal idealists (which he associates with Woodrow Wilson). Carr's realism has often been characterized as classical realism. Carr argues that international politics is defined by power politics. He describes three types of power: political power, economic power, and power over opinion. He argues that political action is based on a coordination of morality and power.
Description
The text is considered a classic in international relations theory, and is often dubbed one of the first modern realist texts, following in the fashion of Thucydides, Machiavelli and Hobbes. Carr's analysis begins with the optimism that followed World War I, as embodied in the League of Nations declarations and various international treaties aimed at the permanent prevention of military conflict. He proceeds to demonstrate how rational, well-conceived ideas of peace and cooperation among states were undermined in short order by the realities of chaos and insecurity in the international realm. By assessing the military, economic, ideological, and juridical facets and applications of power, Carr brings harsh criticism to bear on utopian theorists who forget to consider the exigencies of survival and competition.
Carr does not, however, consider the prospect of human improvement a lost cause. At the end of The Twenty Years' Crisis, he actually advocates for the role of morality in international politics, and suggests that unmitigated Realism amounts to a dismal defeatism which we can ill afford. The sine qua non of his analysis is simply that in the conduct of international affairs, the relative balance of power must be acknowledged as a starting point.
He concludes his discussion by suggesting that "elegant superstructures" such as the League of Nations "must wait until some progress has been made in digging the foundations".
Summary
In 1936 Edward Hallett Carr resigned from the Foreign Office where he had worked for the better part of twenty years to take up the position of the Woodrow Wilson Chair in the Department of International Politics at the University College of Wales Aberystwyth. It would give him what he could never have had in the Foreign Office: the freedom to write and lecture on foreign affairs, something he had long wanted to do. That is how The Twenty Years’ Crisis, 1919 - 1939 was born, although his preferred title for the book was actually Utopia and Reality.
The book talks about international relations in general but more specifically it is devoted to the interwar period, although the author originally wanted to debunk the pretensions of liberalism while providing a way out of the impasse that was the inter-war crisis. Furthermore, he also wanted to show his criticism towards Woodrow Wilson who used as a slogan the right of national self-determination and Carr considered to be one of the reasons for the crisis during the period between wars. The writer was determined to find a solution or at least an alternative to what was happening, to what he named a “new society based on new social and economic foundations”.
The book includes five parts and fourteen chapters in which the first part is dedicated to the study of the science of international politics; a second part that is devoted to seeing the causes and effects of the international crisis between wars; a third part that deals with the concepts of politics, power and morality and the relationship that exists between them; a fourth part specializes on the law as an engine for international change, and, finally, a fifth in which Carr presents his conclusions.