262 J.-A. PEMBERTON
Pourquoi la guerre?; and Warum Krieg?. Why War?, which was the sec-
ond volume in the open letters series, was banned in Germany. In a letter
to Bonnet in March 1939 in which he conveyed his enthusiasm for the
Waelder project, Steinig observed that psychological approaches to social
phenomena were growing ‘visibly’ at the time.^76 Bonnet shared Steinig’s
interest in psychological approaches: when the executive committee of
the Health Organisation deemed that the proposal of the British Medical
Association did not directly relate to its mandated role of protecting
public health and passed the request of that association on to the ICO,
it was Bonnet who pursued the issue. Bonnet’s proposal that the ICO
should undertake a series of studies along the lines of the Waelder study
was later endorsed by the ICIC which authorised the organisation to
maintain its interest in the field.^77
The importance of studying international relations from a psycholog-
ical angle was also emphasised at Prague by Julio Escudero, a represent-
ative of the Chilean Institute for International Relations and director of
seminar studies in public law at the University of Chile. Escudero noted
that Àlejandro Alvarez, a Chilean jurist and one of the founders and
directors of the Institut des hautes études internationales of Paris, had
long called for the creation of a new science: for the creation of ‘a science
of international life’ devoted above all to the ‘psychology of nations’
because this psychology ‘embraces’ all the other aspects of international
life. Escudero noted that Alvarez had coined the expression psychology of
nations and that by this expression ‘is to be understood all those impon-
derable factors in the life of nations which are at the same time the most
active forces: sentiments, mental states, doctrines, ideas, ideals, etc.’
Escudero stated that according to Alvarez, just as there is ‘a science of
economic life, a science of law, a science of criminology, serving as bases
respectively for political economy, public law, private law, and criminal
(^76) Leon Steinig to Henri Bonnet, 23 March 1939, AG 1-IICI-B-V-10, UA. On
Steinig’s interest in the study see also Carl F. Remer to Henri Bonnet, 6 April 1939, and
Carl F. Remer by H. (Hessell) Duncan Hall, 5 December 1938, AG 1-IICI-B-V-10,
UA. Hessell Duncan Hall was a member of the Social Questions and Opium Trafficking
Section of the LON Secretariat.
(^77) H. (Hessell) Duncan Hall to Henri Bonnet and attached memorandum, 15 September
1939, AG 1-IICI-B-V-10, UA.