War and the Absolutists

Worldview ◽  
1960 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 3-6
Author(s):  
Kenneth W. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Moral Imagination ◽  
World War ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Narrow Spectrum ◽  
National Power

No problem facing contemporary world leaders tests political intelligence and moral imagination more severely than the issue of nuclear weapons. The awesome question of what is a viable armaments policy perplexes men no less in 1960 than it did in 1945. What are responsible governments to do with instruments of lethal destruction? What programs can international institutions devise that will broaden the narrow spectrum of security that nations have enjoyed since World War II? Who is prepared to gamble on another's restraint with the growing stockpiles of ever more deadly weapons that nations possess?If there is no security in national weakness can states find safety in national strength? If so, what has happened to criteria of national power when thermonuclear devices can in fatal strikes wipe out whole populations, armies and industrial potentials?

2. Building the bomb

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Siracusa
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Atomic Bomb ◽  
Albert Einstein ◽  
World War ◽  
Popular Imagination ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

No single decision created the atomic bomb, but most accounts begin with the presidential discussion of a letter written by Albert Einstein. ‘Building the bomb’ describes how the bomb came about, from Einstein's letter to Roosevelt about the threat of nuclear weapons to the bombings in Japan. What were the ramifications of the atomic bombs? The impact of the Manhattan Project’s new weapon spread well beyond military and scientific circles, to an extent unprecedented in the popular imagination. A turning point in the history of the contemporary world had been reached. ‘The bomb’, as it was dubbed, became a defining feature of the post-World War II world.

International Regimes: Toward a New Theory of Institutions

1986 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oran R. Young
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Collective Behavior ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Regimes ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
International Level ◽  
World War ◽  
Sustained Effort

The current burst of work on regimes or, more broadly, on international institutions, reflects an emerging sense—especially among Americans—that the international order engineered by the United States and its allies in the aftermath of World War II is eroding rapidly and may even be on the verge of collapse. But is the resultant surge of scholarly work on international regimes any more likely to yield lasting contributions to knowledge than have other recent fashions in the field of international relations? The jury will remain out until a sustained effort is made to evaluate the significance of regimes or institutions more broadly, as determinants of collective behavior at the international level.

scholarly journals Urakami Memory and the Two Popes: The Disrupting of an Abstracted Nuclear Discourse

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 950
Author(s):  
Gwyn McClelland
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
The Other ◽  
Initial Visit ◽  
World War ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

Since 1945, official Catholic discourse around nuclear weapons has condemned their existence on the one hand and supported them as deterrents on the other. This paper argues the largely abstracted discourse on nuclear weapons within the World Church has been disrupted by voices of Urakami in Nagasaki since at least 1981, as the Vatican has re-considered both memory and Catholic treatments of the bombing of this city since the end of World War II. On 9 August 1945, a plutonium A-bomb, nicknamed ‘Fat Man’, was detonated by the United States over the northern suburb of Nagasaki known as Urakami. Approximately 8500 Catholics were killed by the deployment of the bomb in this place that was once known as the Rome of the East. Many years on, two popes visited Nagasaki, the first in 1981 and the second in 2019. Throughout the period from John Paul II’s initial visit to Pope Francis’s visit in 2019, the Catholic Church’s official stance on nuclear weapons evolved significantly. Pope John Paul II’s contribution to the involvement in peace discourses of Catholics who had suffered the bombing attack in Nagasaki has been noted by scholars previously, but we should not assume influence in 1981 was unidirectional. Drawing upon interviews conducted in the Catholic community in Nagasaki between 2014 and 2019, and by reference to the two papal visits, this article re-evaluates the ongoing potentialities and concomitant weaknesses of religious discourse. Such discourses continue to exert an influence on international relations in the enduring atomic age.

«И никто перед нами из живых не в долгу!» обзор основных направлений в изучении истории великой отечественной войны.

2019 ◽  
pp. 44-65
Author(s):  
Y.K. Sergei
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
World War ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Red Army ◽  
Previously Treated ◽  
Military Units

В статье анализируется научнопопулярная историческая литература, посвященная Великой Отечественной войне 19411945 гг. и изданная в постсоветский период. Автор пытается установить основные тенденции и особенности современной историографии Второй Мировой Войны и формирования базы первоисточников для современных военнонаучных исследований. Особое внимание уделено выделению наиболее значимых работ, которые основаны на передовых достижениях современных исследований и посвящены конкретным операциям и сражениям, такие, как битвы под Москвой, Сталинградом и Курском. Среди анализируемых работ те исследовательские работы, которые касались наиболее сложных и противоречивых вопросов о войне, к которым ранее относились предвзято или оставляли без внимания. Главным из этих вопросов является феномен коллаборационизма, мотивы, побудившие тысячи советских граждан служить агрессору. Другой такой проблемой является изучение антисоветских воинских формирований, сформированных из добровольцев и призывников СССР это включает в себя историю их формирования, структуру, особенности комплектования и боеприпасов, их службу против Красной Армии и партизан, их взаимодействие с немецкими гражданскими и военными администрациями, а также судьбу их ветеранов после войны.The article analyzes the academic and popular historic literature, dedicated to the Great Patriotic War of 1941 1945 and published in the PostSoviet period. The author tries to establish the main tendencies and specific traits of contemporary World War II historiography and the formation of the base of primary sources for contemporary military academic research. Special attention is given to singling out the most significant works, which are based on the foremost accomplishments of contemporary research and are dedicated to specific operations and battles, such as the battles of Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk. Among the works analyzed are those research papers that had to do with the most difficult and controversial questions on the War, which were previously treated with bias or left untouched. A foremost amongst these questions is the phenomenon of collaborationism, the motives that led thousands of Soviet citizen to serve the aggressor. Another such problem is the study of antiSoviet military units, formed from U.S.S.R. volunteers and recruits this includes the story of their formation, structure, specifics of manning and ammunition, their service against the Red Army and partisans, their interaction with German civil and military administrations, as well as the fate of their veterans after the war.

Lessons of World War II and Strategic Planning of the Big Three (1945–1949)

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 45-84
Author(s):  
I. E. Magadeev
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Strategic Planning ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Far East ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Us ◽  
Post War

The paper examines how military and political leaders of the Soviet Union, the United States and Great Britain assessed in the first post-war years and in the face of emerging bipolar world order the lessons of World War II, how the latter influenced their strategic planning and forecasts with the emergence of nuclear weapons. The author outlines the key features of this period (1945–1949), including still fresh memories of the unprecedented destruction and losses of the past war, the US ‘nuclear monopoly’, and the absence of a system for nuclear deterrence. The paper provides a systematic comparison of lessons from the past war, learnt by the Soviet, the US and British establishment, identifies similarities and differences between them. The author concludes that WWII was perceived by the political and military leaders of that time as a model of the eventual ‘great war’ in the future, which almost certainly would be ‘total’ and ‘global’ in scope and would demand both thorough preparations during the peacetime and the militarization of civil life. Indeed, the experience of WWII had greatly influenced the strategic and operational planning in the USSR, the USA and Great Britain in 1945–1949. Moscow prepared to face the potential aggression on its Western borders or in the Far East in order to avoid the mistakes of 1941. In Washington the decisionmakers acknowledged the Soviet superiority in conventional weapons and didn’t exclude the possibility that the Soviet Army could quickly establish control over the Western Europe and that the US military would have to retake it in a ‘new Operation Overlord’. The pessimistic outlook of the ‘defense of the Rhine’ was also shared in London, and the British military planned to evacuate the troops to the British Isles (‘shadow of Dunkirk’) and to focus on strategic bombing of the USSR and its allies. Even the appearance of nuclear weapons, that would dramatically alter the strategic context in the following years, played a relatively minor role in 1945–1949. The author concludes that the shadow of World War II and its lessons had a long-lasting effect on the post-war international relations.

15. Traditional Theories in Global Politics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Lawson
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Society ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
English School ◽  
World War ◽  
Woodrow Wilson ◽  
International Theory ◽  
Post War

This chapter examines traditional theories in global politics. It begins with a discussion of early liberal approaches, with particular emphasis on liberal international theory whose proponents include U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and Norman Angell. Liberal international theory is characterised by an optimism concerning the prospects of a peaceful international order established through strong international institutions underpinned by international law. The chapter proceeds by considering the emergence of ‘realism’ as a general approach to the study of politics, along with the different approaches to the study of international politics following World War II, including positivism. It also explores the rise of the English School and the concept of international society before concluding with an analysis of neo-liberalism and neorealism that resulted from revisions of both liberalism and realism in the post-war period.

scholarly journals NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION AND ROGUE STATES: CONCERNS, REALITIES AND FUTURE THREATS

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Rani Erum
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Nuclear Proliferation ◽  
World War ◽  
Material Technology ◽  
Government Programs ◽  
Rogue States ◽  
Private Organizations ◽  
Energy Projects ◽  
The World

Proliferation of Nuclear technology is accepted as a grave threat to the world. However, after the initial use of this lethal weapon at the end of World War II, the technology and techniques were transferred from secret government programs and by private organizations in various fields. Such transformation has been amplified by the privatization of civil nuclear energy projects, as well as other established industries in such way that at the time of need they can use the technology in making of nuclear weapons. Thus, this advancement of nuclear weapons program, material, technology and expertise are not only accessible for purchase from nongovernmental institutions but it has also increased the threat of its misuse by non-state actors. This study examines not only reasons of military nuclearization adopted by powers that be and their regional rivals but also provide comprehensive analysis of relating threats of acquiring this devastating technology by Rogue states and non-states actors and possible future perils faced by the world due to misuse.

Responsibility to Protect goes to China: An interpretivist analysis of how China’s coexistence policy made it a Responsibility to Protect insider

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-248
Author(s):  
Liselotte Odgaard
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Domestic Institutions ◽  
World War ◽  
Coexistence Approach ◽  
Central Characteristic ◽  
Atrocity Crimes ◽  
Economic Capacity

The article offers an interpretivist analysis of China’s coexistence approach to developing the Responsibility to Protect norm concerning atrocity crimes against civilians. The English school’s concept of great power legitimacy through coexistence is a central characteristic of its international society description of the international realm. The article uses an interpretivist approach to show how China’s coexistence foreign policy tradition was challenged by the liberal internationalist agenda of a Responsibility to Protect norm on atrocity crimes against civilians. The emergence of an alternative Chinese Responsibility to Protect concept coupling a state-centric and a people-centric approach with its focus on political and economic capacity-building of existing domestic institutions allowed China to position itself as a legitimate lifeline of liberal international institutions. The article shows how an illiberal state can become a prominent upholder of central institutions of the post-World War II liberal international order.

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