Editing Arnold J. Toynbee (section)

==Political influence in foreign policy==
While the writing of the Study was underway, Toynbee produced numerous smaller works and served as Director of Studies of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, (from 1929 to 1956).<ref>Chatham House: Its history and inhabitants, C. E. Carrington and Mary Bone, Royal Institute of International Affairs, p115</ref> He also retained his position at the London School of Economics until his retirement in 1956.<ref name=EBonlineToynbee/>

===Foreign Office and Paris Peace Conference 1919===
Toynbee worked for the [[Political Intelligence Department (1918–1920)|Political Intelligence Department]] of the [[Foreign Office|British Foreign Office]] during [[World War I]] and served as a delegate to the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]] in 1919. 

===Chatham House===
He was Director of Studies at [[Chatham House]] from 1929 to 1956.<ref>Chatham House: Its history and inhabitants, C. E. Carrington and Mary Bone, Royal Institute of International Affairs, p115</ref>

Toynbee was co-editor with his research assistant, Veronica M. Boulter, of the RIIA's annual ''Survey of International Affairs,'' from 1922 to 1956. It became the "bible" for international specialists in Britain.<ref name=mcneill1989>{{cite book |last1=McNeill |first1=William H. |author-link=William Hardy McNeill |title=Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life |url=https://archive.org/details/arnoldjtoynbeeli00will |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1989 |isbn=9780195058635}}</ref><ref name=brewin1995>{{cite book |last1=Brewin |first1=Christopher |chapter=Arnold Toynbee, Chatham House, and Research in a Global Context |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VYAUuiI9kUwC&pg=PR9 |editor1-last=Long |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Wilson |editor2-first=Peter |title=Thinkers of the Twenty Years' Crisis: Inter-War Idealism Reassessed |year=1995 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=277–302 |isbn=9780198278559 |access-date=11 April 2014}}</ref>

===Chatham House's World War II Foreign Press and Research Service===

At the outbreak of the [[Second World War]] the institute was decentralised for security reasons, with many of the staff moving to [[Balliol College, Oxford]] from Chatham House's main buildings in [[St James's Square]]. There, the Foreign Press and Research Service of the Institute worked closely with the [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|Foreign Office]] to provide intelligence for and to work closely with the [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|Foreign Office]] dedicating their research to the war effort under the Chairmanship of [[Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor|Waldorf Astor]].<ref>Chatham House: Its history and inhabitants, C. E. Carrington and Mary Bone, Royal Institute of International Affairs, p 114</ref> 

The formal remit of Chatham House for the FPRS at Balliol was:<br />
1. To review the press overseas.<br />
2. To “produce at the request of the Foreign Office, and the Service and other Departments, memoranda giving the historical and political background on any given situation on which information is desired”.<br />
3. “To provide information on special points desired" (in regards to each country).<ref name="Carrington_63_64">{{cite book |author=Charles Carrington |author-link=Charles Carrington (historian) |others=Revised and updated by Marry Bone |year=2004 |title=Chatham House: Its History and Inhabitants |publisher=Chatham House |isbn=1-86203-154-1 |pages=63–64}}</ref> It provided various reports on foreign press, historical and political background of the enemy and various other topics.

Many eminent historians served on the FPRS under Arnold J. Toynbee as its Director and with [[Lionel Curtis]] (represented the Chairman) at Oxford until 1941 when [[Ivison Macadam]] took over the role from Curtis. There were four deputy directors. The four Deputy Directors were [[Alfred Zimmern]], [[George Clark (historian)|George N. Clark]], [[Herbert James Paton|Herbert J. Patton]] and [[Charles Webster (historian)|Charles K. Webster]] and a number of experts in its nineteen divisions.<ref>Experts in their fields working at Chatham House's WWII Foreign Press and Research Service included [[James Leslie Brierly|J. L. Brierly]] working on reform of international law; A. J. B. Fisher on economic conditions for reconstruction of Europe; [[Benedict Humphrey Sumner|Benedict H. Sumner]] on the USSR; [[Charles Webster (historian)|Charles K. Webster]] on the United States; [[Alfred Zimmern]] on the British Commonwealth and Empire; [[H. A. R. Gibb]] on the Arab world; [[Robin Humphreys|R. A. Humphreys]] on Latin America; [[George Clark (historian)|George N. Clark]] on the Low Countries, Scandinavia and Italy; Marshall on Germany and Czechoslovakia; W. Stewart on France; [[William John Rose|William J. Rose]] on Poland; [[Carlile Aylmer Macartney|Carlile A. Macartney]] on Hungary; [[David Mitrany]] on Romania; [[Andrew Ryan (diplomat)|Sir Andrew Ryan]] on Bulgaria and Albania; Mrs. Thompson on Greece; [[Rosalind Murray]] on the Vatican, among others.</ref>

It was moved to the Foreign Office 1943–46.<ref>Chatham House and British Foreign Policy, 1919-1945, Edited by Andrea Bosco & Cornelia Nevari, Lothian Foundation Press, 1994, p146.</ref>

===Meeting Hitler===
While on a visit in Berlin in 1936 to address the Law Society, Toynbee was invited to a private interview with [[Adolf Hitler]] at Hitler's request.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brody |first1=J. Kenneth |title=The Avoidable War—Volume 2: Pierre Laval and the Politics of Reality, 1935–1936 |date=1 October 1999 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=978-0765806222|title-link=Pierre Laval }}</ref> During the interview, which was held a day before Toynbee delivered his lecture, Hitler emphasized his limited expansionist aim of building a greater German nation, and his desire for British understanding and co-operation with Nazi Germany.<ref>''A Lecture by Hitler'', {{cite book|author= Arnold J. Toynbee|title=Acquaintances|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1967}} pp 276-295</ref> Hitler also suggested Germany could be an ally to Britain in the Asia-Pacific region if Germany's Pacific colonial empire were restored.<ref name="pemberton">{{cite book |last1=Pemberton |first1=Jo-Anne |title=The Story of International Relations, Part Three: Cold-Blooded Idealists |date=2020 |publisher=Springer Nature |page=34}}</ref> Toynbee believed that Hitler was sincere and endorsed Hitler's message in a confidential memorandum for the British prime minister and foreign secretary.<ref name=mcneill1989ch8>{{cite book |last1=McNeill |first1=William H. |author-link=William Hardy McNeill |title=Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life |url=https://archive.org/details/arnoldjtoynbeeli00will |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1989 |at=Chapter 8 |isbn=9780195058635}}</ref>

Toynbee presented his lecture in English, but copies of it were circulated in German by Nazi officials, and it was warmly received by his Berlin audience who appreciated its conciliatory tone.<ref name=pemberton /> [[Tracy Philipps]], a British 'diplomat' stationed in Berlin at the time, later informed Toynbee that it 'was an eager topic of discussion everywhere'.<ref name=pemberton /> Back home, some of Toynbee's colleagues were dismayed by his attempts at managing Anglo-German relations.<ref name=pemberton />

===Russia===
Toynbee was troubled by the [[Russian Revolution (1917)|Russian Revolution]] since he saw Russia as a non-Western society and the revolution as a threat to Western society.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Paquette |first1=Gabriel B. |s2cid=144711181 |title=The Impact of the 1917 Russian Revolutions on Arnold J. Toynbee's Historical Thought, 1917–34 |journal=Revolutionary Russia |date=June 2000 |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=55–80 |doi=10.1080/09546540008575717 }}</ref> In 1952, he argued that the [[Soviet Union]] had been a victim of Western aggression. He portrayed the [[Cold War]] as a religious competition that pitted a Marxist materialist heresy against the West's spiritual Christian heritage, which had already been foolishly rejected by a secularised West. A heated debate ensued, and an editorial in ''The Times'' promptly attacked Toynbee for treating communism as a "spiritual force".<ref name=mcneill1989p464-5>{{cite book |last1=McNeill |first1=William H. |author-link=William Hardy McNeill |title=Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life |url=https://archive.org/details/arnoldjtoynbeeli00will|url-access=registration <!-- page no. different from print version --> |location=New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1989 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/arnoldjtoynbeeli00will/page/223 223]–4 |isbn=9780195058635}}</ref>

===Greece===
Toynbee was a leading analyst of developments in the Middle East. His support for Greece and hostility to the Turks during World War I had gained him an appointment to the Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History at [[King's College London|King's College, University of London]].<ref name="kcl.ac.uk"/>

===Middle East===
His stance during World War I reflected less sympathy for the Arab cause and took a pro-Zionist outlook. Toynbee investigated [[Zionism]] in 1915 at the Information Department of the Foreign Office, and in 1917 he published a memorandum with his colleague [[Lewis Namier]] which supported exclusive Jewish political rights in Ottoman Palestine.<ref name = "Fried">{{cite journal |last1=Friedman |first1=Isaiah |title=Arnold Toynbee: Pro-Arab or Pro-Zionist? |url= http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/israel_studies/v004/4.1friedman.html |date=Spring 1999 |journal=Israel Studies |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=73–95 |doi=10.1353/is.1999.0019 |access-date=11 April 2014}}{{subscription required}}</ref> He expressed support for Jewish immigration to [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], which he believed had "begun to recover its ancient prosperity" as a result.<ref>{{cite book|author= Arnold Joseph Toynbee|title=Turkey: A Past and a Future|url=http://www.fullbooks.com/Turkey-A-Past-and-a-Future.html|publisher=Good Press|year=2017|quote=Under this new Jewish husbandry Palestine has begun to recover its ancient prosperity.}}</ref> Historian Isaiah Friedman felt Toynbee had been influenced by the Palestine Arab delegation which was visiting London in 1922.<ref name = "Fried" /> His subsequent writings reveal his changing outlook on the subject, and by the late 1940s he had moved away from the Zionist concept taking into account the Palestine Arabs' tenure. Toynbee maintained that the Jewish people had neither historic nor legal claims to Palestine, stating that the Arab "population's human rights to their homes and property over-ride all other rights in cases where claims conflict." Toynbee did concede that Jews, "being the only surviving representatives of any of the pre-Arab inhabitants of Palestine, had a further claim to a national home in Palestine," but even so Toynbee felt the [[Balfour Declaration]] had guaranteed that such a claim was valid "only in so far as it can be implemented without injury to the rights and to the legitimate interests of the native Arab population of Palestine."<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=1961-12-01 |title=Prof. Toynbee Rebuked by U.S. Scholar for Renewed Attack on Jews |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/prof-toynbee-rebuked-by-u-s-scholar-for-renewed-attack-on-jews |access-date=2022-04-14 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}</ref>

Although not the official view of Chatham House which discussed numerous opinions on the then evolving situation,<ref>Thomas G. Fraser, ‘Chatham House and the Palestinian Question, 1920-1939’, in Bosco and Navari, op. cit., p.187-203 </ref> Toynbee came to be known, by his own admission, as "the Western spokesman for the Arab cause."<ref name="Fried" /> The views Toynbee expressed in the 1950s continued to oppose the formation of a Jewish state, partly out of his concern that it would increase the risk of Middle East conflict with the Jews and Arabs and could lead to a nuclear confrontation.Toynbee in his article "Jewish Rights in Palestine",<ref>{{Cite journal|jstor = 1453271|title = Jewish Rights in Palestine|journal = The Jewish Quarterly Review|volume = 52|issue = 1|pages = 1–11|last1 = Toynbee|first1 = Arnold J|doi = 10.2307/1453271|year = 1961}}</ref> challenged the views of the editor of the [[Jewish Quarterly Review]], historian and talmudic scholar [[Solomon Zeitlin]], who published his rebuke, "Jewish Rights in Eretz Israel (Palestine)"<ref>{{Cite journal|jstor = 1453272|title = Jewish Rights in Eretz Israel (Palestine)|journal = The Jewish Quarterly Review|volume = 52|issue = 1|pages = 12–34|last1 = Zeitlin|first1 = Solomon|doi = 10.2307/1453272|year = 1961}}</ref> in the same issue. 
However, as a result of Toynbee's debate in January 1961 with [[Yaakov Herzog]], the Israeli ambassador to Canada, Toynbee softened his view and called on Israel, by then established, to fulfil its special "mission to make contributions to worldwide efforts to prevent the outbreak of nuclear war."<ref name="Fried" /><ref>{{Cite news |title=This is how we ruined Toynbee's theory |url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/this-is-how-we-ruined-toynbee-s-theory-1.210993|newspaper=Haaretz |access-date=19 December 2014|date=2007-01-24}}</ref>
===Zionism and antisemitism===
Though Toynbee co-authoured papers with and commissioned articles from Jewish scholars, and included Jewish friends among those whom he praised in his book ''Acquaintances'',<ref>Those of Jewish heritage he included were [[Alfred Eckhard Zimmern|Sir Alfred Zimmern]], Sir Lewis Napier (formerly Bernstein), and [[Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel|Lord Samuel]]. {{cite book|author= Arnold J. Toynbee|title=Acquaintances|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1967}}</ref>
Toynbee's views on Judaism and Middle East politics prompted allegations of antisemitism.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Eban |first1=Abba |last2=Aridan |first2=Natan |date=2006 |title=The Toynbee Heresy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30245781 |journal=Israel Studies |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=91–107 |doi=10.2979/ISR.2006.11.1.91 |jstor=30245781 |s2cid=144405178 |issn=1084-9513}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Friedman |first=Isaiah |date=1999 |title=Arnold Toynbee: Pro-Arab or Pro-Zionist? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30245728 |journal=Israel Studies |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=73–95 |doi=10.2979/ISR.1999.4.1.73 |jstor=30245728 |s2cid=144149113 |issn=1084-9513}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kedourie |first=Elie |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/53356640 |title=The Chatham House version and other Middle-Eastern studies |date=2004 |publisher=Ivan R. Dee |others=David Pryce-Jones, אלי. קדורי |isbn=1-56663-561-6 |location=Chicago |oclc=53356640}}</ref> [[Abba Eban]]'s 1955 speech ''The Toynbee Heresy'',<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Eban |first1=Abba |last2=Aridan |first2=Natan |date=2006 |title=The Toynbee Heresy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30245781 |journal=Israel Studies |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=91–107 |doi=10.2979/ISR.2006.11.1.91 |jstor=30245781 |s2cid=144405178 |issn=1084-9513}}</ref> for example, bases the accusation of antisemitism on, among other things, the allegedly negative portrayal of Judaism in ''[[A Study of History]]'',<ref name=":1" /> Toynbee's frequent use of the adjective ''Judaic'' to describe episodes of "extreme brutality" even where Jews were not involved, as in the [[Gothic persecution of Christians]],<ref name=":1" /> Toynbee's reference to the Jewish presence in Palestine at the time of the publication of ''A Study of History'' as merely a "fossil remnant",<ref>{{cite book|author= Arnold J. Toynbee|title=A Study of History, Vol. 2, p 235 |publisher=Royal Institute of International Affairs, Oxford University Press|year=1934}}</ref> his portrayal of Judaism as fanatical and provincial and as having advanced the cause of civilization only as a seedbed for Christianity,<ref name=":1" /> his view that Zionism offends Jewish piety by attempting to effect a return to the Mideast through secular means rather than entrusting it to a divinely promised Messiah,<ref name=":1" /> and certain troubling passages in Toynbee's ''oeuvres'', such as a passage in Vol.8 of ''A Study of History'' in which Toynbee wrote that, "On the Day of Judgement, the gravest crime standing to the German [[Nazism|National Socialists']] account might be, not that they had exterminated a majority of the Western Jews, but that they had caused the surviving remnant of Jewry to stumble."

===Dialogue with Daisaku Ikeda===
In 1971 and 1973, Toynbee met and corresponded with [[Daisaku Ikeda]], president of the [[Soka Gakkai International]]. Their dialogue was later edited and presented in the form of a book, ''Choose Life''. His reputation was growing in Japan long before Ikeda made his approach. Toynbee took Japanese culture and history seriously. He was pessimistic about the fate of western civilization. He was genuinely interested in religions such as Shinto and, particularly, Buddhism ... and the late 1960s was an era of 'New Age' gurus such as Buckminster Fuller and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Toynbee was starting to play such a role for Japan, whether Ikeda had approached him or not, writes historian Louis Turner.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1fV5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA292|page=292|author=Louis Turner|editor=Hugh Cortazzi|editor-link=Hugh Cortazzi|chapter=Arnold Toynbee and Japan: From Historian to Guru|title=Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Vol. VII|date=2010-09-23|publisher=[[Global Oriental]]|isbn=978-90-04-21803-1|language=en|quote=Conclusion The controversial Ikeda/Söka Gakkai attempt to use Toynbee's name and reputation needs to be seen in a wider context. His reputation was growing in Japan long before Ikeda made his approach. Toynbee took Japanese culture and history seriously. He was pessimistic about the fate of western civilization. He was genuinely interested in religions such as Shinto and, particularly, Buddhism ... and the late 1960s was an era of 'New Age' gurus such as Buckminster Fuller and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Toynbee was starting to play such a role for Japan, whether Ikeda had approached him or not.}}</ref> In 1984 his granddaughter [[Polly Toynbee]] wrote an article for ''[[The Guardian]]'' attributing her late grandfather's association with Ikeda as a consequence of his old age, frailty and trusting nature. <ref name="ToynbeeP1984">{{cite news |last1=Toynbee |first1=Polly |title=The Value of a Grandfather Figure |newspaper=[[Manchester Guardian]] |date=19 May 1984 |quote= I like to think that if my grandfather had not been so old or if he had met Ikeda in his own bizarre surroundings, he would not have lent himself to this process of endorsement.}}</ref>