IREU 202 Diplomatic History (1919-1990)

lecture 2

Dr. S. BARIŞ GÜLMEZURL: https://ku.academia.edu/seckinbarisgulmez

Email: Baris.gulmez.2009@live.rhul.ac.uk

What will we do today?

• Introduction to basic theories and concepts• End of WWI• Post-War Settlements• League of Nations• Locarno pact• Briand-Kellog pact• Introduction to Great Depression• Round up

Some Basic IR Theory Stuff...• REALISM• IR is anarchic: No higher Authority• States as main actors in IR• Human Nature: Evil, Free Riders• Self-Help: Trust NO ONE!!!!• Power politics• Balance of power

More Basic IR Theory Stuff...• LIBERALISM• Yes IR is anarchic but,• Cooperation is possible• Human Nature: I am your friend!• Harmony of Interests• Collective security: • All for one, one for all...• Democracy=Peace (??)

Pre-WWI and post-WWI world for IR theories

• Pre-WWI Realist politics as a popular approach. • Lack of mutual trust and egoistic state interests led to wars

• Post-WWI Liberal understanding to prevent wars through collective security and lasting alliances, harmony of interests.

• However, this liberal revival failed after the 1929 World Economic Crisis

• Return of realism after WWII.

Key concepts to start with• Balance of power• Temporarily siding with the weak in order to prevent the

powerful to dominate the entire system

• Realpolitik• Foreign policy based on the calculations of military power and

national interest.

• collective security• Forming long-lasting alliances with actors sharing similar goals

and values.

Key concepts to start with

• self-determination• Right of nations, tribe, ethnic communities to

determine their own fate.

• Free-riders• Actors who do not follow the rules of the

group/system while benefitting from its advantages

Key concepts to start with• Isolationism• The policy to avoid taking any part in European conflicts• Traditional US foreign policy since Pres. James Monroe (1823)• Also adopted by Canada and Australia

• Appeasement • a policy of buying off a potential aggressor through negotiation and

compromise in order to prevent an armed conflict• Traditional British Foreign Policy since 19th century

End of the First World War • Those countries ceased to exist: • the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman Empires• Winners’ (FR, UK, IT) economy badly damaged. • Germany not necessarily destroyed... still much feared...

• The US depicted the victory with moral slogans but Europeans interpreted differently....• «War to end all wars»=Demilitarizing Germany• «Spreading democracy»=Crippling the imperial structures of Germany and

Austria

Foreign Policy differences: The US and Europe

• Europe: pragmatisim (Realism)

• The US: Morality (Liberalism)

• Balance of power: Europe favoured, the US disliked.

• Realpolitik: Europe embraced, the US found immoral.

Foreign Policy differences: The US and Europe

• The US favoured collective security and self-determination,

• Europeans never heard of them before..

• European understanding of diplomacy: secretive, behind closed doors.

• The US understanding of diplomacy: Transparent, open, nothing to hide

Foreign Policy: European vs American

• Realpolitik: European Realism• Self-determination: American Liberalism

• The US liberalism: The New World Order (Peace-loving and democratic world)• European Realism: The Old World Order (Warring world)• «Peace-loving nation»Invented by the US; • Europeans never believed it, • but they had to node since they were dependent on the US

Alliance: The US justified it for achieving permanent peace;Europeans used it for fulfiling short-term interests.

Wilson Principles• Mainly about freedom, peace and readjustment of national borders.• Transparent and multilateral diplomacy• Freedom of seas (Int. Straits will be free to pass)• Reduction of national armament• Removal of trade bareers• impartial adjustment of all colonial claims• Readjustment of borders: Belgium, France, Soviets, Ottomans, Austria-

Hungary etc...• Rights of Minorities in Ottomans and Aus-Hung to decide their own fate• Establishment of the League of Nations

Paris Peace Conference (1919)• Assembled to determine the fate of the losers of the WWI.

• Main decisions:• Establishment of the League of Nations• War reparations• 5 treaties with 5 losers• Overseas possessions of Germans and Ottomans taken as mandates to

France and Britain.• Drawing of new national boundaries leading to more trouble in IR

Paris Peace Conference (1919)• Five major treaties prepared at the conference• the Treaty of Versailles, 28 June 1919, (Germany)• the Treaty of Saint-Germain, 10 September 1919, (Austria)• the Treaty of Neuilly, 27 November 1919, (Bulgaria)• the Treaty of Trianon, 4 June 1920, (Hungary)• the Treaty of Sèvres, 10 August 1920 (Ottomans)

• Huge economic, military and border losses... Demise of Empires...E.g. Hungarian territory decreased to 28% of the lands of pre-war Hungary.That led to the Trianon Syndrome in Hungary: Fear of losing more lands

The Sèvres Treaty and Partition of Anatolia

The impact of the Sèvres Treaty• Immediate Impact:• Revealed the intentions of the Entente powers: Destroy Turkey.• The Ankara Government realized «There is no possibility for compromise»• Enflamed the «National struggle» (Milli Mücadele)• Ended the Ottoman sovereignty• Legitimized the Ankara Government in the eyes of the Turkish public

• Never ratified: Ottoman Parliament was dissolved after invasion• The Entente realized: They lacked power to enforce the Sèvres on Ankara.• They needed more than 500.000 troops (27 Divisions).

The impact of the Sèvres Treaty• Long term impact:

• The Sèvres Syndrome• ‘fear of plots by external enemies, especially the Western countries, and

their alleged internal collaborators –ethnic and religious minorities in Turkey– to weaken, carve up and terminate the existence of the Turkish Republic’ (Nefes 2013: 252).

The Sèvres Syndrome• Post-war syndrome still powerful within Turkey society

• Similar to the Trianon Syndrome in Hungary.

• Fear of division by foreigners/Europeans• Fuels nationalism and xenophobia

• Well entrenched within Turkish politics.• Both opposition and government today reflect this Syndrome

Paris Peace Conference continued...• Wilson himself attended the Peace conference.• He announced: World’s security not based on national interests but defending

peace. • Therefore, he argued the necessity to adopt self-determination and collective

security along with the establishment of the League of Nations.

• Europeans could not understand the logical behind league of nations,• BUT could not say NO: • they needed the US financial and military support to recover their nations and

keep the wounded enemy, the Germans, down.

League of Nations (LoN) (1919-1946)

• First international organisation to promote world peace• Forced by Wilson• Main principles: Collective Security and disarmament• 63 Members in total dropped to 23 in 1945

• Because the US against the post-war bilateral treaties (Old World Order)

• It should be LoN’s job to decide on the fate of losers through peaceful means..(New World Order)

Problems of League of Nations1-An American idea but the US never a member• The US Congress rejected it although it was Wilson’s idea from the beginning.

2-No enforcement mechanism to prevent Free-riders• Unilateralism, use of force and fait accompli would soon run rampant • LoN could do nothing to stop them

3-LoN was NO world government they needed Superman

Problems of League of Nations (LoN)4- Aggressor powers soon left the LoN rendering it practically incapacitated

Germany joined in 1926 and left in 1933 after Hitler took over

Italy (founding member) quitted in 1935 after the invasion of Abyssinia

Japan (founding member) left in 1933 after invading Manchuria

The Soviets joined in1934 and expelled in 1939 after invading Finland

Treaty of Versailles• Signed with Germany in 28 June 1919

• Loss of German colonies (became LoN mandates)

• Loss of German European territory (to Poland, Czechoslovakia, Belgium and France)

• Rhineland (mineral rich area) de-militarized

• Alsace-Lorraine given to France

Treaty of Versailles• Anschluss with Austria forbidden

• Armed forces limited (100.000)

• No air force

• Huge sums of war reparation (375 billion $ in today’s rate)

• War Guilt clause: Forced Germany to accept the complete responsibility of WWI

The Effects of Versailles• Germany thought treaty would be in line with Wilson principles, but it was much

harsher...(to prevent Germany from swift recovery) • Versailles seen as «dictated peace» by Germans• Weimar Republic: weak state (democracy??)

• Hyper inflation: Value of German mark de-valued a million times between 1913 and 1923.

• Huge impact on the German society: Fertile ground for Nazism to flourish• Promises to reclaim Germany’s lost territory and reputation helped rally masses

under Nazi umbrella.

The French Unilateral Action: Ruhr• France was persistent on the terms of Versailles afraid of German quick recovery.

• Germany refused to pay the reparations

• France invaded the Ruhr (coal and steel rich) in 1923 but failed to use the mines as the miners went on strike.

• This marked the exhaustion of French military and political power.• This was one of the first instances reflective of the incapability of LoN to prevent

unilateral action

The French Unilateral Action• The Ruhr invasion angered the allied forces (US and UK)

• The US returned to its isolation policy (Monroe Doctrine)

• Unlike France, Britain did not wish to destroy Germany.

• There was a bigger threat The Soviet Union• Germany would be a buffer zone against the Soviet expansion...

• British fear: Germans if stateless would fall into the Soviet hands (BoP).

Locarno Pact 1925

• The endorsement of collective security over Europe

• It was proposed by UK to established a security zone to contain a possible German aggression, but the opposite happened

• The German chancellor Gustav Stresemann: Versailles treaty means war against Germany, let us in, we are peaceful.

• Signed by FR, UK, GER, IT, BEL

Locarno Pact 1925• Meaning: Germany to be protected from any aggressor

• Germany accepted to enter the League of Nations

• At the end: Germany gained a security guarantee from its executioners

• Germany was supposed to be the aggressor to be intimidated • but it was embraced instead

• First instance of appeasement against Germany

Kellogg – Briand Pact (1928)• Renounced war as an instrument of national policy

• legal basis for collective security

• Use of force was prohibited in IR.

• Fran B. Kellogg – US Secretary of State• Aristide Briand – French Foreign Minister• Ultimately 62 nations (even Germany, Italy and Japan) signed the agreement• Pact failed after Japan invaded Manchuria (1931)

The Collective Security problemmatic

• Henry Kissinger (1994:269) explains the problem of Collective security:

• No specific enemy determined and this prevents a common military strategy Germans were added to CS with Locarno

• Besides, slow bureaucratic measures: very difficult to act on time. • Collective security not practical.• No LoN army to prevent free-riders dependent on individual

members (No NATO)• It did not work during the interwar years...• First Violation: Japan in Manchuria (1931)

First look: Great Depression• Initiated by the Wall Street Crash in October 1929• the world industrial production and world trade fell around 50%• the value of European trade decreased by more than 65%

• Unemployment in Germany: 13 Million in 1932.• Nazis happened: • Unemployment 1.7 million in 1935, 0 in 1938.

(see, Kennedy 1989:300-365)

Great Depression• If there had been no Great Depression:• There would not be Hitler or Mussolini to mobilize the masses for ultra-

nationalism.• The Communist Economic System of the Soviets would not be considered as an

important alternative to capitalism.

• The chances for a Second World War would greatly decrease. • Then, collective security under league of nations could have been successful.• There would not be such an anarchic International environment.• (Hobsbawm 1996)

Exercises

• Differences between Europe and America regarding their foreign policy understandings? Refer to IR theories.

• Problems of Collective Security according to Kissinger?

• Main Problems of League of Nations?

Next Week...• Great Depression in detail...• Rise of Nazism and Fascism...• Soviet and Japanese irredentism• Appeasement policies• Fall of the League of Nations

Suggested Readings• Hobsbawm 1996, chapter 3 (Into the Economic Abyss), pp.85-95.• Kissinger 1994 chapter 12 (The End of Illusion: Hitler and Destruction of

Versailles), pp.288-331.• Kennedy 1989 part staring with «The Unfolding Crisis» pp.333-346.