Peter, L.; (2004) R. W. Seton-Watson's changing views on the national question of the Habsburg monarchy and the European balance of power. Slavonic and East European Review , 82 (3) pp. 655-679.

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Abstract

R. W. Seton-Watson, the champion of the small nations, changed his attitudes towards them in accordance with what, he thought, the European balance of power required rather than with what the principle of national self-determination demanded. As a Germanophile, he was disturbed by the Pan-German aspirations which threatened the integrity of the Habsburg Monarchy and thence the European balance and security. This explains why in 1905–1906 Seton-Watson supported the Hungarian Independentists, then became ‘converted to dualism’ and later to trialism. After 1914 he abandoned the unreformable Monarchy, which had become an adjunct to Germany, and helped to create independent nation-states. Seton-Watson, like other liberals in Western Europe, supported the new frontiers, established after 1918, in which the principle of nationality was invariably subordinated to views on balance and security. The conflict between justice and stability in international relations appears to be intractable.

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