The Dilemma of the Peace-Seekers

1945 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-30
Author(s):  
Frederick L. Schuman
Keyword(s):  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Politics ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Blaise Pascal ◽  
Effective Power ◽  
Great Debate ◽  
Peace And Justice ◽  
World Organization

“Right without Might is weakness,” wrote Blaise Pascal three centuries ago. But “Might without Right is tyranny. We must therefore combine Right and Might, making what is Right mighty and what is mighty Right.” To achieve such a combination in the community of nations is, by common consent, the major problem of world politics in our time. Outside of the dwindling ranks of the anarchists, few would any longer dispute the propositions that peace among men is unattainable without the organization of men into government, possessed of effective power to enforce law, and that justice among men is unattainable without the subordination of government itself to law, reflecting men's conception of right. How these goals are to be reached among nations is still a matter of controversy. But after participating in two world wars against tyrants, dedicated to world unity through conquest, most Americans are now agreed that peace and justice among nations depend upon order and law among nations and that these, in turn, depend upon the efficacy of what has long been called “international organization” or, more optimistically, “international government.”The Great Debate of 1944–45, like that of 1919–20, is not over ends, but over means. How can an effective world organization be brought into being, and how can it be made to function for the maintenance of peace, the enforcement of law, and the achievement of justice? In an age whose slogan in grappling with its most fateful problems has too often been “too little and too late,” it is not strange that American discussion of the problem of world order has largely taken the form of old disputes as to the terms upon which the United States should assume membership in an association or league of nations to keep the peace. The tacit assumption behind the discussion is that such a partnership of sovereignties can and will keep peace, enforce law, and promote justice if only it be organized with sufficient cleverness and joined by a sufficient number of states.

Nationalism and Internationalism Reconciled

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-53
Author(s):  
Antero Holmila ◽  
Pasi Ihalainen
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
World War I ◽  
New World ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
World War ◽  
National Sovereignty ◽  
World Organization

The carnage of World War I gave rise to liberal visions for a new world order with democratized foreign policy and informed international public opinion. Conservatives emphasized continuity in national sovereignty, while socialists focused on the interests of the working class. While British diplomacy in the construction of the League of Nations has been widely discussed, we focus on contemporary uses of nationalism and internationalism in parliamentary and press debates that are more ideological. We also examine how failed internationalist visions influenced uses of these concepts during World War II, supporting alternative organizational solutions, caution with the rhetoric of democracy and public opinion, and ways to reconcile national sovereignty with a new world organization. The United Nations was to guarantee the interests of the leading powers (including the United States), while associations with breakthroughs of democracy were avoided. Nationalism (patriotism) and internationalism were reconciled with less idealism and more pragmatism.

After Victory

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. John Ikenberry
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Politics ◽  
World Order ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
The Cold War

The end of the Cold War was a “big bang” reminiscent of earlier moments after major wars, such as the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the end of the world wars in 1919 and 1945. But what do states that win wars do with their newfound power, and how do they use it to build order? This book examines postwar settlements in modern history, arguing that powerful countries do seek to build stable and cooperative relations, but the type of order that emerges hinges on their ability to make commitments and restrain power. The book explains that only with the spread of democracy in the twentieth century and the innovative use of international institutions—both linked to the emergence of the United States as a world power—has order been created that goes beyond balance of power politics to exhibit “constitutional” characteristics. Blending comparative politics with international relations, and history with theory, the book will be of interest to anyone concerned with the organization of world order, the role of institutions in world politics, and the lessons of past postwar settlements for today.

Book Review: The Politics of East-West Migration, Migration and the New Europe, Citizens without Sovereignty: Equality and Sociability in French Thought, 1670–1789, Authority and Democracy: A General Theory of Government and Management, Explaining Northern Ireland, War and Peace in Ireland: Britain and the IRA in the New World Order, Taken by Storm: The Media, Public Opinion, and US Foreign Policy in the Gulf War, Policy and Public Opinion in the Gulf War, behind the Mule: Race and Class in African-American Politics, The Idea of a Liberal Theory: A Critique and Reconstruction, The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy, Reinventing the Left, North Carolina Government and Politics, Alaska Politics and Government, Kentucky Politics and Government: Do We Stand United?, Argentina since Independence, The Politics of Human Rights in Argentina: Protest, Change, and Democratization, Resistance and Integration: Peronism and the Argentine Working Class, 1946–1976, Selected Political Writings, between Friends: Discourses of Power and Desire in the Machiavelli-Vettori Letters of 1513–1515, Fidel Castro and the Quest for a Revolutionary Culture in Cuba, Back from the Future: Cuba under Castro, Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution, The Fifty Years War: The United States and the Soviet Union in World Politics, 1941–1991, New French Thought: Political Philosophy, The Empire of Fashion: Dressing Modern Democracy, An Intellectual History of Liberalism

1996 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 358-374
Author(s):  
Martin Baldwin-Edwards ◽  
Patrick Riley ◽  
Keith Graham ◽  
Chris Gilligan ◽  
Theo Farrell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gulf War ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Modern Democracy ◽  
Politics And Government

The Leadership of the United States in the Postwar World

1944 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-248
Author(s):  
Clarence A. Berdahl
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
United States Navy ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Unanimous Vote ◽  
International Court ◽  
The Hague

It is now more than one hundred years since the substance of the Connally Resolution was first adopted by a legislative body in the United States; it is almost fifty years since the United States, at the Hague Conferences, took the lead in pressing for an international court with much more power than the Court we have since failed to join; it is about thirty-five years since Congress itself, by a unanimous vote in both houses, adopted a resolution urging that the United States Navy be combined with other navies into an international police force for the preservation of peace; it is not quite thirty years ago that the political parties, without any of the present hullabaloo on the point, and at a time when the United States was not itself at war, achieved such a unity of position in their stand for effective American participation in world order as to make debate between them on that issue virtually nil; and it is not quite thirty years ago that the man soon to become the Republican leader in the Senate joined from the same platform with the Democratic President in an appeal for a League of Nations, and a League with force, both economic and military, at its command.

Origins of the United Nations

2018 ◽  
pp. 40-58
Author(s):  
Justin Morris
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
United Nations ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
World Organization

This chapter analyzes the transformational journey that plans for the United Nations undertook from summer 1941 to the San Francisco Conference of 1945 at which the UN Charter was agreed. Prior to the conference, the ‘Big Three’ great powers of the day—the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom—often struggled to establish the common ground on which the UN’s success would depend. However, their debates were only the start of the diplomatic travails which would eventually lead to the establishment of the world organization that we know today. Once gathered at San Francisco, the fifty delegations spent the next two months locked in debate over issues such as the role of international law; the relationship between the General Assembly and Security Council; the permanent members’ veto; and Charter amendment. One of modern history’s most important diplomatic events, its outcome continues to resonate through world politics.

The Great Victory and the post-war world order (from the League of Nations to the UN)

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 30-40
Author(s):  
Larissa S. Ruban ◽  
Wong Qu
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Crimea ◽  
Post War ◽  
Great Victory

The author shows how the post-war world order was formed and what role the countries that were allies of the anti-Hitler coalition (the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom) played in this process. The development of the Charter and procedures for the activities of the United Nations, which took place at the meeting Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill at the Yalta conference in February 1945 in the Crimea, is discussed in detail. Describing the current situation in the context of globalization, the author leads the discussion of Russian and foreign scientists about the vision of the modern world.

American power and the empire of capitalist democracy

2001 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 191-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. John Ikenberry
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Politics ◽  
American Power ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
American Hegemony ◽  
Capitalist World

The United States is today a global superpower without historical precedent. It stands at the centre of an expanding democratic-capitalist world order that is itself, fifty years after its creation, the dominant reality in world politics. Despite expectations that American hegemony would disappear and trigger the emergence of a new and unstable multipolar post-Cold War order, the opposite has in fact happened. American power has grown even greater in the decade since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Although American power is not uniformly welcome around the world, serious ideological challengers or geopolitical balancers are not to be found. Scholars who a decade ago were debating the prospect of co-operation and conflict in a post-hegemonic world are now debating the character and future of world politics within an American unipolar order.

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