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Old Diplomacy: Reflections on the Foreign Office before 1914

The nineteenth century Foreign Office has long been regarded as the epitome of ‘old diplomacy’. A closer examination of the evidence, however, suggests a different picture. Although for much of the century before 1914 the Office remained a compact and uncomplicated organisation, its procedures were subject to repeated reforms. In modern sociological parlance, the Office was a knowledge-based organisation with efficient information management procedures geared towards informed policy-making. The conduct of business lay in the hands of a relatively small and homogenous élite. This helped to produce some degree of uniformity of outlook, the ‘Foreign Office mind’. The foreign policy calculations of this élite revolved around concerns for the European equilibrium and Britain's global interests in the geo-strategic periphery. This involved a nuanced balancing act, which came to an end only in 1914, thus bringing to an end also Britain's ‘old diplomacy’