International RelationsWeek 2

[read Baylis et. al. (2008) chapter 2]

Brendon Taggbrendon@umt.edu.my

1

International history 1900-1990

End of imperialism

Total war

Nuclear weapons

Cold war

‘Total war’

WWI (1914-18) and WWII (1939-45)

global scale

pursuit of ‘unconditional surrender’

mobilisation of whole populations

women; factory, civil defence, paramilitary, paramedics

total call-up in pursuit of victory

http://sites.google.com/site/historygcse/year-11-homepagehttp://www.hullwebs.co.uk/content/l-20c/conflict/ww1/posters/propoganada-posters.htm

WWI

Origins highly debated

-complex alliances?

-autocratic German elite?

Motivations are clear

-nationalism/patriotism

-short, victorious, glorious

http://www.amazon.com/Germanys-Aims-First-World-War/dp/0393097986

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Bull_-_World_War_I_recruiting_poster.jpeg

The Treaty of Versailles (1919)

End of WWI

-rights and responsibilities of victors and losers

-harsh on defeated Germany

Woodrow Wilson’s fourteen points

-self-determination

-open diplomacy

-association of nations (League of Nations)

Treaty failed – frustrated Germany, Depression

The Munich Agreement (1938)

Appeasement

Germany

Britain and France

Sudetenland

Czechoslovakia

Poland

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/bitesize/higher/history/roadwar/anschluss_rev1.shtml

Japan

League of Nations failed

-US; Japan, Italy, Germany

WWII: Japan’s rise threatened

-US and European empires

Italy Germany support Japan

Germany defeated May 1945

Hiroshima, Nagasaki August 1945http://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/content.cfm/nagasaki_atomic_bomb http://www.librarything.com/work/918970

End of Empire

Self-determination

Promoted by Woodrow Wilson

-but only for some

Age of imperialism –status

Perceptions changed after 1945

Different experiences of decolonisation

British Decolonisation

1947-1980 [49 territories]

India dramatic / Pakistan separation violent

African colonies largely 1950s-early 1960s

Kenya - Mau Mau War

Malaya- emergency

- http://www.cit.griffith.edu.au/~s285238/BritishEmpire/Britain-20centuries.html

French Decolonisation

Indo-China [Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam]

Algeria

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:French_Empire_1938.png

WWII to Cold War

Before WWII - Europe at centre

- US and Soviets preoccupied

Post WWII- US and Soviets at centre

‘Superpowers’

-global political ambition

-military capability (WMD)

Cold War

End of WWII alliance UK, US, USSR

European weakness; perceived Soviet strength

Atomic bomb

http://www.nwhistorycourse.org/ttcourse/Year3/unit1/week2/week2.php

1945-1953: Onset of Cold War

End of WWII

-rise of US and USSR

-Yalta conference

-Potsdam conference

Concern: USSR expansion

Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Yalta_Conference_(Churchill,_Roosevelt,_Stalin)_(B%26W).jpg

Berlin 1948

First major cold war confrontation

Stalin wanted to secure Berlin

Massive airlift

Political commitment emerged

-NATO

http://de.academic.ru/dic.nsf/dewiki/885737 http://www.akg-images.co.uk/_customer/london/gallery/berlin/history.html

Cold War Outside Europe

1950 North Korea - South Korea

‘general communist strategy’? -> ‘test case’

US and UN vs. PR China

3 million killed

Middle East less clearly ‘cold war’

-Israel 1948 supported by US and USSR

-Soviets supported Arab nationalism

-Israel tied to Br, Fr, US – but later Arab states too

1953-1969: Conflict, Confrontation and Compromise

US assumed

communism monolithic

Warsaw Pact 1955

Stalin -> Khrushchev- Modernisation- Reforms E Europe

http://spruce.flint.umich.edu/~ellisjs/Map%2028.2%20Cold%20War%20Confrontation.jpg

http://library.usu.edu/specol/digitalexhibits/masaryk/stalin.html

http://spruce.flint.umich.edu/~ellisjs/Map%2028.2%20Cold%20War%20Confrontation.jpg

Crises

Berlin (1961)

Cuba (1962)

-USSR secretly deploying nuclear missiles

-Kennedy ordered naval blockade

http://www.artsjournal.com/popcorn/2009/11/ http://personal.monm.edu/mmb/ILA/thirteen_days.htm

Progress From Crisis

Partial Test Ban treaty 1963

After 1962 - stable period competition coexistence

Other nuclear weapons states

-Britain (1952) France (1960) China (1964)

1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

-by 1990 Israel, India, Pakistan, South Africa

1969-1979: Détente’s Rise and Fall

détente US and USSRrapprochement US and China

Détente’s Rise and Fall

1973 Arab-Israeli war- US and the USSR drawn in

Détente ended in the late 1970s- Ethiopia 1975 and Angola 1978- Iran 1979

NATO missiles Europe 1979

- Afghanistan 1979

1979-1986: ‘The Second Cold War’

Early 1980s - USSR supremacy?

Ronald Regan

Strategic Defense Initiate” (SDI)

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/07/8_things_obama_could_do_to_ensure_his_nerd_legacy.php

‘The Second Cold War’

Reaction to Regan’s rhetoric

Grenada (1983)

Libya (1986)

general Central America policy; Nicaragua Contras

1986 International Court of Justice

USSR took it seriously

-1983 S Korean airliner

- Able Archer incident

1985 Mikhail Gorbachev‘new thinking’

-perestroika (restructure)

- glasnost (openness)

aim - transform relations with US and W Europe

result- dramatic change across Eastern Europe

1987 INF Treaty

- Gorbachev triumph, Thatcher/Regan vindication?http://www.topnews.in/gorbachev-claims-europe-misunderstands-russia-2166548

http://www.propagandaposters.us/imagesofwar/index.php/2009/11/09/fall-of-the-berlin-wall-20-years/

Conclusion

How did WWI come about?How can we explain the rise of Hitler?Who won the cold war? How? What were the

consequences?

Conclusion