Inside the other No 10
MAGNIFICENT Chatham House in St James’s, London SW1, is much more than a building, being the nom de guerre of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. This remarkable body—learned, but not part of a university; devoted to the study of international relations, but proudly independent of the Foreign Office—was founded 100 years ago in response to the failures of diplomacy that led to the First World War.
International relations were too important to leave to the diplomatic corps; secrecy and amateurism should be replaced by openness and science. According to its current director, Robin Niblett, the organisation remains almost alarmingly relevant today, with conditions eerily echoing those after 1918, in the aftermath of a pandemic.
Chatham House was the brainchild of Lionel Curtis, one of
