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BRITISH MIDDLE EAST POLICY-MAKING AFTER THE FIRST WORLD WAR: THE LAWRENTIAN AND WILSONIAN SCHOOLS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 1998

TIMOTHY J. PARIS
TIMOTHY J. PARIS
Affiliation:
Indianapolis, Indiana
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Abstract

In the aftermath of the First World War, two schools of divergent thought emerged among Whitehall's Middle East policy-makers. One, propounded by T. E. Lawrence, found support in the Foreign Office, where many favoured Arab national ideals and backed the Hashemite family for rulership positions in the region. The other, epitomized by Arnold Wilson, the civil commissioner for Iraq, was thought to reflect the India Office view that direct British rule in Iraq was essential and that Hashemite pretensions should be opposed. In this article, the author shows that the lines separating the India and Foreign Offices were not so clearly drawn. Many senior officials in the India Office were disturbed by Wilson's imperial programme for Iraq and some were prepared to support Hashemite aspirations. But Lawrence's 1920 campaign for Hashemite rule and his hyperbolic press attacks on Wilson's policies had the paradoxical effect of moving the India Office to defend Wilson and to revert to their anti-Hashemite stance. The article concludes with an analysis of the reasons behind the triumph of the Lawrentian over the Wilsonian schools at the end of 1920, when Wilson was removed from Iraq and Middle East policy-making was consolidated in the Colonial Office.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , September 1998 , pp. 773 - 793
Copyright
© 1998 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

Abbreviations used in this article include CAB (Cabinet), CO (Colonial Office), EC (Eastern committee of the cabinet), FO (Foreign Office), IO (India Office), IOL (India Office Library and Records), and L/P&S (Letters, Political and Secret of the India Office). Citations to CAB, CO, and FO refer to documents located at the Public Record Office, London. Citations to L/P&S refer to documents located at the India Office Library and Records, London.