June 29, 2013

Finest Hour 135, Summer 2007

Page 24

“Behind the Distant Mountains Is the Promise of the Sun”

A valuable aspect of Churchill studies: Reflections upon his experiences which bear upon our world today

2024 International Churchill Conference

Join us for the 41st International Churchill Conference. London | October 2024

More

Finest Hour’s 2007 mandate to publish “all Churchill, all the time” (FH 134: 5) offers us opportunities for more expansive treatment of Winston Churchill’s relevance today: not what he would do if he were here alongside us (and he would be alongside us); but what his experience and reflections suggest might be done, or the warnings he offers of dangers and challenges similar to those he met, fought and overcame.

Speaking at our Chicago conference on the most critical mission of The Churchill Centre, Laurence Geller described our responsibility to convey Churchill’s experience and insight to freedom-loving peoples: “Our task is about keeping the lessons Churchill taught us alive. They are today never more vital in the endless fight against genocidal maniacs, racism, fundamentalism, hatred and bigotry. His example emboldens us to combat the wickedness of myriad self-serving fanatics. We are stronger when armed with Churchillian lessons. We can make our society better. We should and we must.”

As our President, Laurence has now attended many meetings, at the board, chapter and national level, in America and in Britain, of this and other organizaitons, to reach out and elaborate on his idea: kind of “Think Tank” to promote the development of Churchillian responses to today’s challenges. The message, he unceasingly reiterates, “is never more relevant than it is today. To fail to apply his experience —to engage simply in nostalgia for old glories and battles won—would be less than Churchillian.”

Call it “Applied Churchill,” or whatever you like. Repeatedly Sir Winston implored us to “study history.” Certainly he would want us to derive the lessons history offers. As he said nearly 100 years ago in 1908: “What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone? How else can we put ourselves in harmonious relation with the great verities and consolations of the infinite and the eternal?”

With that charge in mind, Christopher Harmon, insurgency and terrorism expert and Churchillian, offers a new interpretation on what we should learn from Churchill’s Cold War posture that may apply to today’s wars. Professor Harmon does not mention Iraq, except in passing—his is a different Churchillian message.

Yet we cannot forget Iraq—how could we these days? So two other scholars, Professors Toby Dodge and David Freeman, turn to that dilemma in collegial debate—the kind of which we think Winston Churchill would approve. They consider not whether we should go or stay; but rather what, if anything, we can learn from Churchill’s and Britain’s experience in Iraq 85 years ago. Much, they conclude, has changed. And much remains the same.

We hope readers will welcome our reemphasis on this aspect of Churchill Studies. Our aim is simple: to encourage fresh thinking among Great Democracies he believed were “the hope of years to come.” As he concluded in 1908: “And I avow my faith that we are marching towards better days. Humanity will not be cast down. We are going on—swinging bravely forward along the grand high road—and already behind the distant mountains is the promise of the sun.”  —THE EDITORS