ianuarie 6, 2010

The End Game: the consequences of World War II ⁷

by George Visan • Analysis, English content, George Visan, International Affairs, Posts by author, War and Politics • Tags: Bretton Woods, Cold War, consequences, Decolonization, End Game, Europe, European Great Power System, flank powers, France, Great Britain, Helsinki Accords, international politics, international system, Italy, Japan, market economy, nuclear monopoly, Polish-German border, United Nations, USA, USSR, World War II, Zhu Enlai

Potsdam Conference (courtesy of Wikipedia and Bundesarchiv)

It is said that when asked about what he thought of the French Revolution, the Chinese foreign minister Zhu Enlai replied that it is too early to say. This famous quip about the French Revolution can be applied also to the consequences of World War II. This article is the final installment in a series of articles which dealt with the greatest conflict ever to have been fought and provides a short-list of the far reaching consequences of this event. The list of consequences should not be viewed by the readers as being definitive and I strongly urge them to add more or comment on them.

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septembrie 13, 2009

Appeasement ²

by George Visan • Analysis, English content, George Visan, International Affairs, Posts by author, War and Politics • Tags: Adolf Hitler, Appeasement, Édouard Daladier, balancing, bandwagoning, Czechoslovakia, France, Great Britain, international system, Joseph Stalin, Munich, Nazi Germany, Neville Chamberlain, Poland, Western Powers, World War II

Munich Agreement: Neville Chamberlain, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Edouard Deladier, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Galeazzo Ciano

Munich Agreement: Neville Chamberlain, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Edouard Daladier, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Galeazzo Ciano

The term appeasement is unpopular today both in politics and in academia as it is associated with the policy pursued by France and Great Britain towards Nazi Germany in the 1930s. The highpoint of this policy was reached on September 29, 1938 in Munich when the Western Powers gave in to Hitler’s territorial demands concerning Czechoslovakia. Since then the term has been associated with political and military weakness and treachery. This article represents the second installment in a series dedicated to the commemorations of 70 years since the start of World War II and will deal with the political implications of appeasement. In the following lines I will outline the meaning of appeasement and its implications for the international system. My approach will draw upon the work of Robert Gilpin and of Mark R. Brawley and will concentrate on defining appeasement and explaining the political context in which it was implemented.

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septembrie 3, 2009

World War II: Seventy years after ^Răspunde

by George Visan • Analysis, English content, George Visan, International Affairs, Posts by author, War and Politics • Tags: appeasment, Atlantic, atomic bombings, Bretton Woods, Cold War, France, Great Britain, hegemonic war, hegemony, Hiroshima, Hitler, Nagasaki, Nazi Germany, Pacific, Raymond Aron, Robert Gilpin, Start of WW II, the Alies, the Axis, UN, United States, USSR, World War II

World War II fighting

Few events have had such a deep impact on world history as the conflict that griped the international system seventy years ago. As all great power wars in the last five hundred years it started in Europe, with a bid a for hegemony made by a Germany, the second in twenty-five years, but it soon spread to North Africa, the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans. World War II was a total war, the second in less than a generation, and as such it involved attacks on civilians and genocide. From a military and strategic point of view it was a total war, as the aim of the war was the re-ordering of the entire international system and the destruction of some of its members; its scope was not limited to the European continent, it saw an unprecedented level of societal mobilization for the war effort in every country involved and it was prosecuted with every means available, culminating in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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