Chapter
Review "The World Wars" from the Part 1 of the Book: Introduction to
World Politics
By
Richard W. Mansbach and Kirsten L. Rafferty
The book is contributing a truly global
approach to International Relations and Political Science, Introduction to Global
Politics, Brief
Edition, brings together an expert team of international scholars to provide
students with a current, engaging, and non-U.S. point of view on global politics.
Introduction to Global Politics is a major
new textbook which introduces students to the key changes in current global
politics in order to help them make sense of major trends that are shaping our
world. The emphasis on change in global politics helps students recognize that truly
new developments require citizens to change their beliefs and that new problems
may appear even as old ones disappear. This text is designed to encourage
students to think ahead in new, open-minded ways, even as they come to
understand the historical roots of the present. the book has been comprise of
six parts in which various phases of world politics has been discussed
profoundly along with their theories and approaches.
This part of the book tells the story of how
states first emerged in Europe and formed an interstate system that came to
dominate global affairs. It describes the birth and evolution of the
territorial state, and discusses how these political leviathans were
transformed from the personal property of kings into communities owned by their
citizens. It describes the rise of nationalism, especially during and after the
French Revolution, and how state and nation became linked in communities that
attracted the passions and highest loyalties of citizens who were willing to
die in their name.
After describing the emergence and evolution of
the state in Europe, the author has examined the evolution of two international
systems that did not feature territorial states – imperial China and medieval
Islam.
This chapter focuses on the world wars: World
War I (1914–18), then called the Great War,
the events of the war, and its consequences, including
World War II (1939–45). Studying these wars will allow us to step back and see
in action many of the issues of war and peace that the author has discussed in
later chapters, including the relationship between politics and war. Analyzing
the causes of the world wars also demonstrates efforts to build theory and explain
war by reference to levels of analysis.
These events are important in another respect
as well: which began the modern era of global politics, including many of the
problems that the world face today. The chapter opens by examining the events
leading up to World War I, particularly those that so boosted fear and
hostility in Europe that war seemed unavoidable. The chapter then analyzes the
many sources of the war according to their levels of analysis and considers how
political scientists
have used this case to generalize about war. It then describes how World War I
permanently altered global politics and leaded in the modern world. It reviews
the sequence of events during what has been called the “twenty years’ crisis” following
World War I that led to the next world war: the harsh treatment of Germany in
the Versailles Treaty, the failure of the League of Nations, and the policy of
appeasement practiced by the West in the series of crises in the 1930s. The
chapter closes by assessing the sources of World War II Untangling the causes
of World War II allows political scientists to generalize further about war and
to identify the similarities it may have with other wars. In a section of this
chapter, the author has reviewed some of the causes of World War II by various levels of analysis. An
individual-level explanation for World War II might focus on Hitler’s ambitions
and his racist ideology. An alternative explanation, at the state level of
analysis, is that significant challenges within European states contributed to
the outbreak of World War II. For instance, economic collapse led to the rise
of the Nazi regime within Germany, driving voters to Hitler. In Great Britain,
appeasement was thought a realistic strategy, given scarce economic resources
At the global level, explanations for the war focus on the Versailles Treaty system,
the balance of power in Europe, the failure of collective security, and the
spread of extremist ideologies. This chapter has examined the events leading up
to two world wars and has analyzed the sources of war according to their level
of analysis. This has seen that both world wars can be attributed to numerous, reinforcing,
causes at each level of analysis. Several prominent theoretical explanations
exist for each war, but no single explanation is sufficient. At the end of this
chapter, guide lines for students
activities have been set by the author.
Moreover, further reading to the related topics have also been suggested in the
end.
