Los estudios internacionales en América Latina: realizaciones y desafíos

Amold T¡rynbee I THE Sl1JOY OF CONTEMPORARY HISTORY, FOUNOING OF THE r1RST." is a useful way to start in founding an institute of tltis kind, because, as you will see, tltis will interest individual people, you will draw in púbtic support for your institute, wltich is fmancially rather useful. If you spread an interest in international affairs you will be gaining or probably getting the opportunity of gaining prívate financial support. Having worked for 23 years at our institute in London till 1 retired in 1956, 1 find, looking back over that time, that 1 notice a rather interesting tlting, immediately after the first World War, 1920 say, when the Institute started its work in London, there were rather few people whose practical work in tife, whose profession, whose job, whose employment invoIved international relations. Lawyers work would probabIy be confmed to Britain, doctors work confined to Britain again, engineers even might be confmed to Britain though of course there were many British engineers working in Chile and other countríes over the world. But as time has gone on, 1 think the great note of our age, sínce 1914, has been that for good or evil, the world has been growing together to a single unity. It may be growíng together in unity simply fOI common destruction, OI it may be growing together in unity in order that mankind fOI the first time in ltistory should live as a single farnily. 1 think that in an atomic age if we do not contrive to live together as a single family, we are going to destroy ourselves, and 1 hope we are going to take the alternative of living together as a single family. But in any case whatever the outcome of this growing unification in the world is going to be, tltis process of unification has become a very noticable fact, and today there are very few professions in any country, 1 think, wltich do not involve sorne knowledge of international affairs. Almost a11 businesses, occupations, employments, have an international side, a foreign side, as well as a domestic side, and this is an important point for the study of international affairs, because it makes it easier to recruít members for an institute of tltis kind. The second activity, besides the meetings of members to discuss current international affalrs, that the two instítutes undertook was publications. With publícations of course you reach, or you can reach, a far wider public than just with meetins of members in some particular city, however great the city may be. Many people in this hall probably know the QuarterIy Journal of Foreign Affairs published by the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. From the beginning to this day, it has maintained, as you know, an extraordinari1y high standard of scholarship. Its artícles are always extremely distinguished and written by people of great authority. The journal is one way of publishing information about international affairs. In London we also have a journal in which, among other things, we try to review all the important books written in all the leading languages; Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian and the others, on intemational affairs, so that everyone who takes in tltis journal of ours will be able to see every two months what 27