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Leo Pasvolsky and an Open World Economy

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Progressivism and US Foreign Policy between the World Wars

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Abstract

Leo Pasvolsky (22 August 1893–5 May 1953) was a journalist, economist, state department official and special assistant to Secretary of State Cordell Hull. He was one of the US government’s main planners for the post World War II world and ‘probably the foremost author of the UN Charter’. During the 1930s and 1940s, he envisioned a stable, open world economy based on international political cooperation involving a successor to the League of Nations, wider than an alliance of democracies, and with international police powers. This chapter shows how his beliefs and proposals of the pre-war period had an impact on his contribution to the ‘Post-war Planning’ (PWP) process within the State Department. It also shows that he had major disagreements with some other PWP officials, notably Isaiah Bowman, especially over the future role of Soviet Russia in the post-war international order.

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Williams, A. (2017). Leo Pasvolsky and an Open World Economy. In: Cochran, M., Navari, C. (eds) Progressivism and US Foreign Policy between the World Wars. The Palgrave Macmillan History of International Thought. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58432-8_5

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