As the Second World War came to a close amidst nuclear fallout in Japan, devastated cities across Europe creating a wave of displaced persons, and the last gasp of European imperialism, there was a sense that the world was rapidly changing. Governing bodies such as the United Nations were formed, and with it a new cadre of what were to be called non-governmental organizations (NGOs) intent on not only reconstruction but on shaping a new world of international cooperation and governance—even as the world was simultaneously being split in two between the United States and the Soviet Union. Some members of the Religious Society of Friends saw these world circumstances and were compelled to respond to them and devote aspects of the peace witness not only to humanitarianism but diplomacy. During the early years of the Cold War Quakers became increasingly engaged in diplomacy both formally and informally. In this paper presentation I will explore the relationship between Quakerism and diplomacy. I will show how individuals, motivated by religious belief, worked tirelessly to produce a “Quaker concept of international cooperation.” Indeed, over the course of the twentieth century, the tenor of Quaker organizing shifted from providing ostensibly apolitical humanitarian aid to participating in a complex web of advocacy and activism. I will argue that as Quakers worked to change the world, the world of international politics in turn changed them and their international political agendas.
I will focus on the work of individuals involved with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the British Friends Service Council (BFSC), and the Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC) as they related to the work of the Quaker United Nations Offices (QUNO). I will examine the opening of these offices and the Quaker desire for a world government that they hoped would be achieved by the United Nations. QUNO also regularly hosted diplomatic summits where they would gather diplomats and ambassadors to discuss conflict resolution, peace, and international affairs. They attracted top officials, including one 1959 event co-chaired by Lester B. Pearson, then Leader of the Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons and eventual Prime Minister, soon after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I will explore the non-traditional diplomacy explored by Quakers during retreats to peace camps around the world. In particular, I highlight the connection between the very formal activities in New York and Geneva and the more ad-hoc activities in locations such as Grindstone Island, a small island in Big Rideau Lake approximately 112 km from Ottawa. The CFSC decided to open the Grindstone Island Peace Centre in 1963 as a “response to world tensions” in order to provide “retreats, training institutes and programs of peace education and action” through which the Centre sought to “contribute to the quality of ideas and action, and to the growth of insight and skills required by peacemakers today” (Newcombe, 1972).
I contend that connections across national boundaries drove activism for American, British, and Canadian Quakers at home and abroad while simultaneously transforming the meaning of Quaker peace testimony in the twentieth century. Individual and collective action was not a new phenomenon for Quakers, and the AFSC worked in collaboration with the CFSC and the BFSC throughout the First and Second World Wars to provide aid on the frontlines—an effort for which they were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 (Maul, 2024). The networks created, and the international respect gained, by this work allowed Quakers to dramatically change their approach to the peace testimony following the Second World War. While humanitarianism remained a cornerstone of Quaker activity, they became increasingly interested not just in responding to world crises but in preventing them. This transformation has yet to be documented in its own study and the vast majority of existing scholarship remains limited by their national (largely US-focused) and temporal (pre-1945) frameworks. My larger project expands the field of Quaker studies by focusing on lesser known Cold War activities.
My study also draws upon and supplements the transnational turn in foreign relations history (Tyrell, 2007; Iriye, 2013). I take a transnational approach as I strive to understand the connections between groups that were simultaneously bound by national and supranational religious affiliations. While scholars have established the significance of religion in diplomatic history, my study represents a unique contribution to this field in that Quakers explicitly do not proselytize and thus do not conform to paradigms of conservative religious movements and missionary work (Preston, 2012; McAlister, 2018; Turek, 2020). Nor do they fit neatly into the history of humanitarianism for although aid was a key fixture of Quaker internationalism, it was not their only focus (Barnett, 2013; Salvatici, 2019). While their role in the peace movement is better understood and Quaker leaders such as AJ Muste regularly feature in studies of pacifism, they are rarely more than a footnote to a larger narrative (Goedde, 2019; Laqua, 2023). I will bring together these strands of diplomatic history—religion, humanitarianism, and pacifism—in order to show how members of a relatively small religion strived to respond to the challenges of the twentieth century and shape the world into their own “radical vision of the Kingdom of God” (Lakey, 1971).
I employ a multi-archival method combining personal papers with organizational documents. The AFSC, BFSC, and CFSC kept meticulous records of meetings while also publishing a variety of pamphlets and newsletters that are housed in Quaker archives located in Philadelphia (US), London (UK), and Newmarket (Canada) respectively. But while these are rich sources that shed light on actions and strategies, they do not give a full picture of the personal connections that facilitated political action. These papers include letters, diaries, drafts of publications, and photographs that will help me to understand the experiences of individuals and the people-to-people connections that facilitated transnational activism. This paper presentation will draw upon this research and I will highlight the stories of particular individuals, including William Huntington and Murray Thompson, to highlight Quaker diplomacy.
During the early years of the Cold War Quakers became increasingly engaged in diplomacy both formally and informally. In this paper presentation I will explore the relationship between Quakerism and diplomacy. I will show how individuals, motivated by religious belief, worked tirelessly to produce a “Quaker concept of international cooperation.” Indeed, over the course of the twentieth century, the tenor of Quaker organizing shifted from providing ostensibly apolitical humanitarian aid to participating in a complex web of advocacy and activism. I will argue that as Quakers worked to change the world, the world of international politics in turn changed them and their international political agendas.