In diplomacy benevolent neutrality means a neutral country favors one of the belligerents in a war. The term was used by the Germans in 1912 when they were negotiating with the British regarding the

Haldane Mission The Haldane Mission of February 1912 was an unsuccessful effort to seek détente with Germany and reduce dangerous friction between Britain and Germany arising because of their escalating naval arms race. The mission by British diplomat Richard H ...

. Germany demanded Britain pledge "benevolent neutrality" toward Germany in case it was in a defensive war. If Britain did so it would jeopardise its informal alliance with France, so foreign minister Edward Grey refused. Grey later used the term in 1914 to describe

US foreign policy The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...

on involvement in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It is distinct from strict neutrality because the United States had some favorable policies towards the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

, for example by generally-favourable trade decisions, which were accentuated by the better availability of information about the Allies and the pre-existing state of public opinion. Eventually, benevolent neutrality favoured the Allies even more by allowing them loans and arms. Grey's description would become outdated, as the United States would enter into a state of

armed neutrality A neutral country is a state that is neutral towards belligerents in a specific war or holds itself as permanently neutral in all future conflicts (including avoiding entering into military alliances such as NATO, CSTO or the SCO). As a type of ...

, with the declaration of the Sussex pledge after US President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

's ''First Warning to the Germans''. The same policy also played a role in World War II before Pearl Harbor in that US trade policies and diplomacy strongly favored United Kingdom and France in opposition to Germany.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benevolent Neutrality Foreign relations of the United States International relations theory Non-interventionism World War I