5 THE POST-WAR DECLINE OF THE INTERNATIONAL STUDIES CONFERENCE 457concern which he insisted was shared among Austria’s post-war lead-
ership. Thanking the conference for its invitation, Lemberger stated
that he hoped that the reborn Austrian committee would show itself
‘worthy’ of the ‘trust’ placed in it by the conference and that through
maintaining contact with the conference, the committee’s members
would be able ‘after an interval of seven years—to take up ...[their]...
place again among the scholars of the free nations.’^101
While most spoke at the conference as if they thought the ISC should
continue, a strong feeling was apparent that it was sorely in need of
modernisation and that there were defects in its organisation. As Mayoux
expressed it speaking in his capacity as secretary general of the confer-
ence, it was a question of whether the ISC was a ‘living animal capable of
evolution’ or whether it was a fossil.^102
In a report in which he summarised the criticisms of the conference,
Mayoux addressed a concern that had been raised on numerous occa-
sions before the war, namely, that the conference was too ‘ceremonial’:
there were too many inaugural and closing speeches and there was too
much in the way of formal receptions and dinners.^103 A conference of
such a ceremonial character, Mayoux stated, was even more ill-suited to
the post-war period than it was to the pre-war period. Mayoux elabo-
rated on this point in stating that ‘[t]oday, we are living in a new world,
in that post-war democracy, [is] a little more revolutionary than the pre-
war democracy; we have become enemies of...“elegance diplomatique”,
which was perhaps a too conspicuous feature of the conferences held
in those days.’ Echoing the advice that Holland had dispensed while
in Paris, Mayoux stated that it would be advisable to reduce the num-
ber of formal speeches and instead concentrate on involving discussions
amongst ‘useful participants.’^104
Suggesting that the scientific reputation of the ISC had suffered
somewhat due to the oratorical dimension of conferences, Mayoux stated
that most of the official addresses given at the conference were ‘sterile
from...[its]...intellectual standpoint’. He added that ‘even at the study
(^101) International Studies Conference, Verbatim report of the XIIIth Administrative
session, December 16 and 17, 1946, at the Centre d’études de politique étrangère de
Paris, IICI-K-XIV-12, UA, 12.
(^102) Ibid., 22.
(^103) Ibid., 18.
(^104) Ibid.