Sir Alfred Eckhard Zimmern (26 January 1879 – 24 November 1957) was an English classical scholar, historian, and political scientist writing on international relations.
[1] A British policymaker during World War I and a prominent liberal thinker, Zimmern played an important role in drafting the blueprint for what would become the League of Nations.
His father, Adolphus Hermann Christian Anton Zimmern, was a naturalised British citizen, born in Germany.
Zimmern was educated at New College, Oxford; he obtained a First in Classical Moderations in 1900, followed by a First in Literae Humaniores ('Greats', a combination of philosophy and ancient history) in 1902.
[2] Zimmern drafted the blueprint of what would become the League of Nations: a regular conference system with a permanent secretariat and open to universal membership.
[2] Zimmern opposed the creation of a democratic powerful World State, arguing that it was too mechanistic, impractical, and prone to tyranny.
[2][3] The endowment for the Woodrow Wilson Chair was announced in 1918 and Zimmern began work in the position in April 1919.
The Geneva School was held every summer at the Geneva Graduate Institute[19] He was the inaugural Montague Burton Professor of International Relations, Oxford University (1930–1944),[2] Zimmern was a proponent of a British Commonwealth, arguing that it could evolve and adapt to shifting circumstances and changing perspectives among its members.
[20] He was a founder of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) (1920) and sat on its Council until the outbreak of the Second World War.
When Chatham House, formed the Foreign Press and Research Service (FPRS) to provide intelligence for and to work closely with the Foreign Office during the Second World War, Zimmern stepped down from the Council of Chatham House in order to avoid a conflict of interest to serve on this with many other eminent historians under the direction of Arnold J. Toynbee and Lionel Curtis (represented the Chairman at Oxford).
It was decentralised for security reasons, with many of the staff moving to Balliol College, Oxford from Chatham House's main buildings in St James's Square.
To “produce at the request of the Foreign Office, and the Service and other Departments, memoranda giving the historical and political background on any given situation on which information is desired”.