Understanding the Causes of WWII On November 5， 1937， Adolf Hitler summoned his generals to a meeting in Berlin. The meeting was expected to be routine. But once it began Hitler swore the participants to secrecy and proceeded to outline his plans for war. According to minutes drafted from memory a few days later by an army adjutant， Colonel Friedrich Hossbach， Hitler said that the aim of German policy was to secure a large living space—Lebensraum—for the German racial community. This expansion could only be done by war， which had to occur before 1943-­‐1945， when German power would peak. The first steps would be to seize Czechoslovakia and Austria. Hitler believed that France， England， and Poland had already written off the Czechs and had too many problems of their own to resist. But if they did， Germany must counter with lightning strikes. The deck would then be cleared for the final strike against the primary enemy， Russia. Adolf Hitler (20 April， 1889-­‐30 April， 1945) 图片来源：
http://www.bellenews.com/2012/05/04/world/europe-­‐news/adolf-­‐hitler-­‐profile-­‐uncovered-­‐in
-­‐wwii-­‐british-­‐intelligence-­‐report/ Realists ask if WWII wasn’t really just a continuation of WWI. The basic 1 problem was the same: anarchy， the security dilemma， and an unstable balance of power. After WWI， Germany was not occupied or destroyed. It remained intact and potentially a looming menace again in the exposed (remember the open plains) center of the European system. True， Germany was much weaker. It had lost about 13% of its prewar territory， the monarchy had ended， and runaway inflation and economic depression had followed. The Versailles Treaty limited its arms and stripped it of its colonies. But Germany continued to have the largest population in Europe and one of the most resilient， talented， and efficient societies in the world. The major powers in Europe did not see this problem in the 1920s， distracted， as realists see it， by utopian liberal schemes of collective security such as the League of Nations. When they did see it in the late 1930s， it was too late. Germany had gathered momentum， as it had before WWI， and the security dilemma intensified with renewed force. Germany was too big to contain without encirclement and too little to feel safe with encirclement. The Causes of WWII: The Realist Perspective and Levels of Analysis Level of analysis Realist perspective Systemic Distribution/balance of power: Structure •
Relative rise of German and Japanese power •
Germany alienated instead of restored as a great power •
Power vacuum caused by many new， weak states in eastern Europe， and a weak China in Asia •
Major powers such as the US and Soviet Union did not balance •
Tripolarity sets off scramble between Germany， Russia， and the US to ally with 2 third country Process Failure of UK， France， Poland， Russia， and US to align against the greater power (Germany). They buckpassed: •
German diplomacy adept (compared to clumsy， before WWI)—Hitler’s pact with Poland， naval treaty with Britain， and alliance with Italy •
Threats based on different national (geopolitical) interests ， not common institutional procedures—peace not indivisible •
France formed alliances with Poland ， Yugoslavia ， Czechoslovakia ， and Romania—all weak states—instead of the Soviet Union Foreign policy German leaders use aggressive domestic interests to wage expansionary war Domestic Aggressive interests of various domestic groups in Germany cause leaders to go to war Individual Hitler’s war Roosevelt’s embargo From the liberal perspective， the balance of power itself was the problem. As the dilemma with German encirclement suggested， such a balance could never be stable. It had to be replaced by new institutional arrangements. Liberal advocated by President Wilson proposed a whole new scheme for managing military relations in intentional politics. The concept of collective security organized force on a different principle， one based on common institutions and 3 the preponderance of power rather than separate national interests and the balance of power. The League of Nations embodied this imaginative new approach， but it didn’t work at the time. Why? Liberal accounts lay the blame at the door of the US. It refused to play its role as a new， leading great power. After helping win WWI， the US did an about-­‐face， refused to join the League， and retreated into isolationism during the 1920s and 1930s. Without the leading power， the League could not muster a preponderance of power， and the world marched off into another nationalist struggle for power. The Causes of WWII: The Liberal Perspective and Levels of Analysis Level of analysis Liberal perspective Systemic Collective security problems and the failure of Structure the League of Nations: •
Major powers not involved to create preponderance of power •
Centralized commitments too weak to establish security as a collective good and provide incentives to disarm •
Aggressor states not members of League and hence not subject to institutional constraints Economic depression reducing interdependence Process Misperception of threat: •
UK sees France as stronger than Germany •
France thinks defense dominant and “chain-­‐gangs” with UK and Poland (leaving initiative to Hitler) •
UK appeases instead of balancing Hitler at Munich (1938) and fails to align with Soviet 4 Union after Hitler invades Czechoslovakia in March 1939 Spread of immoderate goal: Germany and Japan are revisionist state， seeking to overturn the Versailles Treaty and create Greater East Asia Co-­‐Prosperity Sphere Foreign policy British foreign minister tries to finesse domestic opposition to plan to divide Ethiopia Domestic Divided domestic interests in US reject League Economic collapse in Germany Individual •
Ineffective leadership of Congress by a dying President Wilson 5 Identity perspectives have another answer—the kind that derives from revanchism (the desire for revenge) ， irredentism (the desire to regain territories)， racism， and xenophobia. German nationalism after WWI had all these characteristics. Many Germans felt that they had been unjustly blamed for WWI and humiliated b the Versailles Treaty that ended the war. They considered it only reasonable to regain territories where Germans lived ， such as Alsace-­‐Lorraine， which France had seized in WWI (and which Germany had seized in 1871). Many Germans also indulged in a racism of Aryan superiority and murderous antisemitism， and they dehumanized foreigners not of their superior race. This was the extreme nihilistic nationalism that Bismarck unleashed in the 1860s and talked about in his conversations with von Gerlach: “I can even think out the idea that some day ‘unbelieving Jesuits’ will rule over the Mark Brandenburg [core of Prussia] together with a Bonaparte absolutism….” Aggressive missionaries (Jesuits) without any beliefs ruling over Berlin with a Napoleon-­‐like absolutism—not a bad description of the Nazis who controlled Germany from 1933 to 1945. 6 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto， including small children， surrender to German soldiers after the uprising in 1943. 图片来源：
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/photo-­‐gallery-­‐the-­‐horrific-­‐german-­‐occupation-­‐of-­‐poland-­‐fot
ostrecke-­‐67357.html The Causes of WWII: The Identity Perspective and Levels of Analysis Level of analysis Identity perspective Systemic Change in individual and collective identity: Structure •
Shared norms of self-­‐determination not uniformly practiced or applied， created many small ， weak states (rather than weak states themselves being the cause， as realist perspectives emphasize) •
National identities diverged—different nationalism drove security dilemma (not geopolitics ， as realist perspectives emphasize) Process Spread of fascism， socialism， and racism Retreat of democracy Foreign policy German decision makers stir the witch’s brew of domestic racism and foreign threat Domestic Bolshevism/communism in Russia Racism/militarism in Germany and Japan Exceptionalism in the US Individual Stalin’s communist beliefs that Germany and other capitalist countries would fight one another and that the Soviet Union could stay out of it 7 Events leading to WWII from different perspectives Realist Liberal Identity Versailles Treaty 1919 League of Nations 1919 Nationalism 1900s American 1920s exceptionalism/isolationism Weimar (domestic) 1920s Republic struggles and fails in Germany Fascism takes power in 1920s Italy; communism in the Soviet Union Rapallo Pact 1922 Washington Naval 1922 Conference France occupies and 1923 leaves Ruhr Valley (next to Rhineland); forms alliance with Little Entente Locarno Pact 1925 Germany joins 1925 League Kellogg-­‐Briand Pact 1928 Hitler’s idea of a German 1930s Third Reich Japan’s idea of a Greater 1930s East Asia Co-­‐Prosperity Sphere Japan invades Manchuria 1931 Hitler takes power 1933 Germany and Japan 1933 8 leave League Soviet Union joins 1933 1934 Spanish Civil War 1934 League German non-­‐aggression pact with Poland; German-­‐British naval agreement Italy invades Ethiopia Germany Rhineland; 1935 occupies 1936 Japan and Germany sign 1936 signs Axis anti-­‐Comintern Pact powers alliance with Italy Japan invades China 1937 Germany annexes Austria March Appeasement 1938 Munich Germany attacks Poland; September Germany at September 1938 occupies September Sudetenland Germany 1938 invades March Czechoslovakia 1939 Molotov-­‐Ribbentrop Pact August 1939 WWII begins 1939 Germany， Japan and Italy 1940 sign Tripartite Pact 【参考文献】
Henry R. Nau， Perspectives on International Relations: Power， Institutions， 9 Ideas (third edn.) (Washington DC.: CQ Press， 2011.)， pp.129-­‐58. 【教学目的】
本案例旨在让学生掌握第二次世界大战爆发的历史原貌，并运用不同的国际关系
理论视角对其根源进行分析、解读。 【思考题】
1. 第二次世界大战难道是可预见的吗？为什么？ 2. 请描述一下二战发生之时的国际背景？这对二战的爆发有何意义？ 【教学计划】
本案例分析使用 1 课时，采用讲授与讨论相结合的方式教学，引导学生对不同的
国际关系理论视角加深了解，梳理出引发第二次世界大战的真正原因。 10