1 - The Construction of Peace

Summary

Chapter 1 uses the construction of the Peace Palace in The Hague around 1910 as metaphor for his intellectual project. The Peace Palace was the tangible outcome of two consecutive international conferences on international law in Tinbergen’s birthplace. The conferences were an initiative of nineteenth-century imperial powers, but provided an important impetus to the international legal, and later economic, order that would come to characterize the twentieth century. In a similar way Tinbergen’s work is marked by a tension between older nineteenth-century historical state-centered perspectives on the economy and modern twentieth-century techniques and scientific tools. The theme of peace and the construction of an international order were central to Tinbergen’s intellectual project. And like the Peace Palace, his project was characterized by a tension between high-minded idealism and political realities. Most importantly, the city of The Hague as diplomatic center in a small country, dependent on international trade and peace, provides a helpful lens through which to understand Tinbergen’s oeuvre.