Have Collective Security agreements and arrangements effectively ended the practice of nations attempting large scale military aggression against other countries? Is the long history of larger, more powerful countries invading smaller, weaker, neighboring lands to dominate them for the most part over?
How do the nations of the world preserve peace? How do major countries provide leadership in maintaining peace, security, and growing prosperity for all nations?
In Unit 5, we will try to answer these questions by teaching about various foreign policy instruments that have been employed as peace keeping techniques.
QCC OBJECTIVE 4 – Compare nationalism to globalism. (BST – 1, 2, 3, 4, 13, 14:
QBE-54: AF / AM)
4-2: Give examples of historical developments that are evident of nationalismand globalism in history
4-4: Formulate hypotheses regarding the possible consequences of the worldtrends toward globalism
4-5: Appraise the forces of nationalism and globalism in the world today andif a desirable balance between the two forces has been established.
AF / AM: Research the history of the Pan African Organization of
African Unity – OAU, and the role the OAU has played in the
continentsdevelopment.
QCC OBJECTIVE 7 – Trace and analyze selected cultural, economic, political, and historical patterns in post-WW II Europe (BST-1._1, 2, 3, 4, 13, 14: QBE-53, 54, 55, 57)
7-1: Trace in outline form historical developments in selected European countries from 1945 to the present.
7-2: Compare / contrast the founding and maintenance of NATO and the long defunct Warsaw Pact and the role of Poland in both
Poland has belonged to both the Warsaw Pact and NATO.
7-3: Examine the nuclear arms race between the U.S. – USSR from 1957until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992
7-5: Develop two maps; #1. Show the changing face of communism in Eastern Europe 1918 – 1945,; map #2 – the years 1960 – 1991
7-6: Predict which nation, region, continent may be the superpowers of the future.
2012 NATO logo
QCC OBJECTIVE 10 – Trace and analyze selected cultural, economic, political and historical patterns in post-WW II Asia. (BST 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 13, 14: QBE – 53, 54, 55, 57: AF / AM)
10-3: Draw conclusions why and how Vietnam, Korea, and China became battlegrounds of East-west confrontation.
QCC OBJECTIVE 12 – Trace the nature of cooperation and conflict among major or competing ideologies. (BST – 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 13, 14: QBE – 53, 54, 55, 57: AF / AM)
12-1: Define and differentiate between cooperation and conflict in
U. S. –Soviet relations prior to the transformation of Russia
12-2: Explain how ideologies unify people who think and feel the same way and promote conflict for people who think and act differently
12-3: Examine the factors that influence political ideology
12-4: Compare and contrast the beliefs of Americans and Iranian Shiite Muslims, identify sources of mutual antagonism and conflict, and recognize that the US has been engaged in a limited cold war with Iran since 1979.
12-5: Assess the strengths and weaknesses of a monarchy (Saudi Arabia), a democracy (Israel), and a dictatorship (Syria).
AF / AM: Research and outline President Obama’s policies toward Africa. Observe how many major countries of the world can be placed inside of Africa’s enormous land area. Assess U.S.’s geo-political and geo-strategic policies towards Africa – have we prioritized Africa accordingly? Why?
QCC OBJECTIVE 13 – Analyze the world’s balance of power with respect to economic and political competition. (BST – 1,_2, 3, 4, 7, 13, 14; OBE – 54, 55; AF / AM)
13-2: Define balance-of-power
13-3: Give examples of military alliances.
13-4: Examine past nuclear destructive capacity of U. S. and former USSR as an effective balance of power between the East and Westand assess recent alterations in this military equation.
AF/ AM: Assess Africa’s role in the world balance of power equation with regard to economic and political competition.
QCC OBJECTIVE 16 – Describe the structure of the major international decision-making organization. (BST – 1, 2, 3, 4, 13, 14: QBE-54: AF / AM)
16-1: State the goals and purposes for which the United Nations was created
16-2: Construct a chart depicting the organization and functions of the majororgans of the United Nations and its specialized agencies.
16-3: Examine the growing costs of financing UN activity such as Refugee camps maintenance and peacekeeping missions
16-4: Document and discuss a current issue before the United Nations
16-5: Assess the previous roles of the U. S. and former USSR in theUnited Nations system, and why and how the great power equation inthe General Assembly and Security Council is relatively improved.
AF / AM:
1. Construct a color-coded map showing the African nations that are members of the United Nations
2. Research and report why and how debt is one of Africa’s bigger problems.
QCC OBJECTIVE 17 – Determine the powers and effectiveness of the United Nations and the world court. (BST – 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 13, 14: QBE – 54, 55)
17-1: Outline the powers of the United Nations
17-2: Identify and discuss selected world crisis situations that resulted in United Nations involvement
17-3: Examine the outcomes of UN intervention in major crisis situations
17-4: Summarize developments associated with a case that went before the International Court of Justice – ICJ
17-5: Critique effectiveness of the United Nations and the World Court
AF / AM:
1. Identify the highest ranking Africans serving in the UN
2. Assess role of UN in South Africa and Namibia.
QCC OBJECTIVE 22 – Analyze the nature and impact of armament issues. (BST- 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 13, 14: QBE – 54, 55, 59: AF / AM)
22-1: List reasons why nations build armaments
22-2: Discuss the importance of deterrence as motivation for nations to develop arsenals.
AF / AM:
1. Identify on a map of Africa the sites of present armed conflicts
2. Construct a chart showing the five most heavily armed nations in Africa
3. Draw conclusions from nations with largest arsenals and presence of conflict in area.
AIM #1:- To teach that past foreign policy instruments such as secret alliances and appeasement were not effective in deterring aggressors, or for maintaining peace
AIM #2:- To teach that collective security arrangements have proved successful as means and instruments for maintaining global peace and stability.
OBJECTIVES: The student will be able or expected to:
1- Explain why secret alliances between the competing European imperial powers were a major cause of World War I
2- Recognize why the old League of Nations, the first collective security pact and forerunner to the United Nations, denounced secret alliances and recommended that all future alliances between nations be open covenants openly arrived at
3- Be knowledgeable of how America’s preference for isolation after World War I led to the Senate’s rejection of U.S. entry into the League and subsequently rendered the world’s first collective security arrangement weak and ineffective
4- Relate why England and France, the League’s two major military powers, allowed their armed forces to deteriorate to the point where they believed they were unable to deter Nazi aggression
5- List and draw conclusions from the ally’s surrender of Czechoslovakia – the gateway to the heartland – to the Nazis on the premise that appeasement of Hitler would satisfy his quest of restoration of the Pan-Germanic Empire and deter further aggression
6- Understand that Adolph Hitler perceived the allies appeasement of him as a sign ofweakness and that may have actually encouraged Hitler to believe that hecould next seize Poland with impunity also
7- Draw conclusions from President Franklin Roosevelt’s belief that America’s rejection of post-WW I leadership encouraged fascist aggression andinfluenced F. D. R.’s committing the US to playing aninternationalist role upon the victorious conclusion of WW II Teddy Roosevelt kept Europe out of Dominican Republic (1906)
8- Recognize that President Roosevelt’s awareness of how U.S. isolationism had undermined the old League motivated F. D. R. to establish after WW IIthe United Nations, a collective security arrangement on a global scale
9- Analyze why the US’s emergence from WW II as the world’s most powerful nation demanded that America play a leadership role, orchestrate thepost-war peace, and become an international policeman of sorts
1 0- Explain why and how the USSR also emerged as a superpower andleader of the aggressive communist bloc and thus became adangerous new adversary – Pax Sovietana or Sovieticus
What image did the Soviets project to the 17 nations that communism was imposed on?
11- Give reasons why competition between the two spheres of influence blocs — free world versus communist — produced hostile bi-polar and aworld threatening cold war status that lasted forty-five years
12- Explain how the surge of post-WW II nationalism led to the formation of a thirdbloc – third world – of generally unaligned and poorer countriesseeking middle of the way modes of national development
Outdated Third World Map
13- Explain why / how U. S. strategies to contain communism – regionalcollective security pacts, mutual defense treaties, hot wars, proxy armies – forged bi-polar spheres of influence and limited Marxist takeovers to mostly less developed third world countries
Shanghai Accords 
14- Assess how the rise of new economic super states – Japan, Germany, China – the trend to large free trade zones – EEC, NAFTA – and the collapse of communism has:
a. Changed the past bi-polar relationship to an emerging multi-polar situation
b. Affected past collective security arrangements.
15- Simulate regional and global collective security strategies to contain or deterpowerful foes from aggression against smaller, weaker nations .
KEY CONCEPTS: Sovereignty, foreign policy, diplomacy, treaty, secret alliances, isolationism, appeasement, aggression, collective security, League of Nations, United Nations, Security Council, sanctions, United Nations Forces, North Atlantic Treaty Organization – NATO, Warsaw Pact, balance of power, balance of terror,
Mutual Assured Destruction – MAD, bi-lateral disarmament, world peace, interdependence, Organization of American States – OAS, Organization of African Unity – OAU, European Economic Community – EEC
UNIT RESOURCES
1- Student Handout -20: This preparatory historical reading introduces and describes Unit 5’s subject matter and basic concepts. It also includes how secretalliances and appeasement were major causes of WW’s I and II and that creation and maintenance of collective security pacts over the past sixty years have probably prevented the outbreak of WW III.
2- Student Handout #21: Illustrates how Britain and France’s appeasement of Hitler and the Nazi’s failed to deter German expansionism. Munich has become synonymous with moral bankruptcy in foreign policy – the handing over of a small or weak nation to a powerful aggressor. President George Bush 41 based Operation Desert Storm on this historical fact – Kuwait would be liberated from a more powerful, neighboring aggressor by 26 allied nations.
3- Student Handout #22: Describes the United Nations and its organs and their functions. The UN is an example of the world’s first truly global collective security arrangement. Aim of handout: To show that the great powers past liberal use of the veto prerogative rendered the Security Council, the UN’s aggression deterrence organ, powerless.
4- Student Handout #23: Comparative examples of past major adversarial collective security forces — NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) versus the defunct Warsaw Pact Alliance.
5- Student Handout -24: Collective Security Simulation Experience: The Continental Containment Strategy Game.
AIM: An analysis and research lesson to assess continental / intercontinental power relationships.
6- Student Handout -25: Examples of continental, intercontinental, collective security, political and economic arrangements – OAS, EEC, ASEAN, ANZUS
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES
Introduce students to the unit by:
1. Identifying U. S. government agencies and key cabinet officials responsible for implementing American foreign policy
Current US Secretary of State – John Kerry – former US Senator from Massachusetts
2. How decisions made by these agencies and individuals may or can lead our nation into war
Current US Secretary of Defense – Chuck Hagel – former US Senator from Nebraska
3. Distribute handout #20 to provide historical examples and back-ground for establishing a foundation of understanding.
If having assigned handout #20 for homework instead, begin class by reviewing the reading. The following guiding questions are designed to assure some measure of comprehension.
1. If Europe was enjoying La Belle Époque – The Beautiful Era, 1880-1914 – why did it plunge into World War I? Reasons: Instability in the Balkans, intense nationalism, imperialism, militarism, secret shifting alliances, great power rivalries, competition for foreign markets
Europe – 1914 – before the outbreak of WW I
2. How come the United States didn’t join the League of Nations after having entered WW I to make the world safe for democracy? Answers: Wilson’s political miscalculations, Republican’s rejection of world leadershipfor the U. S., American employment of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as defensive moats to hide behind
3.Why was the League of Nations so ineffective in deterring aggression?
Reasons:
A. League was viewed by Germany and Japan as vehicle for English and French imperialism
B. Without U. S. military power, the League had no teeth
C. Axis military might eclipsed British and French war fighting capacity
D. Perceived weakness of western democracies due to Fascist triumph in Spanish Civil War and Munich Appeasement led Hitler to believe that he could expand indefinitely.
4.What lessons of history did Presidents Roosevelt and Truman learn from World Wars I and II? Answers:
A. Established UN in New York City
B. Became global policemen
C. Created regional collective security and mutual defense treaties to contain communist expansionism which replaced fascist aggression as major threat to U.S. interests – Pax Americana vs. Pax Sovieticus
5.Overall, how well have western collective security alliances worked?
Answers: In general, western collective security pacts maintained a stable world order and acceptable balance of power. The proof is the staving off of global nuclear war for more than forty years. Marxist advances were limited to poorer third world countries and even conventional warfare between the U. S. and USSR became unthinkable.
If beginning the lesson with the reading, allow students adequate time to absorb the material, then proceed with guiding questions and suggested reasons and / or answers to them.
Student Handout #21 is designed to teach and reinforce the idea of appeasement, one of the Unit’s key concepts. Hitler partially rose to power by playing to the German’s resentment of the Versailles Peace Treaty. Germans felt that they were
unfairly blamed for starting WW I, had territory seized or occupied, and were forced to pay reparations that savaged their economy. Hitler’s glory grew as he restored German national pride and power. His supposed last demand was to be reclamation of the Sudetenland, are area with about 100,000 ethnic Germans that
had been attached to the new state of Czechoslovakia. With the Sudetenland in hand, Hitler’s goal of uniting the Teutonic peoples of Europe under the German flag would be complete and he would be satisfied. Or so British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Foreign Minister Eduard Daladier had convinced themselves.
Upon presenting this background, distribute a copy of handout #21 to each student or beam material onto a screen. Make sure that the students fully understand that Hitler, if turned down by England and France, threatened to take the Sudetenland by force. Stress facts that:
1. Choice was military engagement or surrender a relatively small parcel of land
2. Both ministers believed that their nations were not in the position to challenge the powerful Nazi war machine and yielded
3. Then Member of Parliament Winston Churchill strenuously argued that appeasing Hitler would more likely lead to war than avoid it
4.Even the Nazis were reportedly amazed by how easily the Sudetenland was given to them
5. When the Nazis took the rest of Czechoslovakia thirty days later, the sellout at Munich became infamous in the annals of history.
Key discussion questions:
1. Could WW II have been avoided if England and France had stood up to Hitler?
2. Or would have a showdown in Munich simply prompted war to break out sooner?
3. Did appeasement lead Hitler to believe that he could seize Poland with impunity also?
4. Was Churchill correct in his assessment that war could have been averted had the western democracies instead chosen to fight the Czechoslovakian takeover? Why?
5. Were the allies really not prepared for war?
6. Is there ever truly such a state – will an aggressor care if you are not?
7. Emphasize about the United Nations:
A. Organizational makeup
B. 5 permanent members, 10 non-permanent
C. Procedural matters versus substantive
D. Permanent member veto power over substantive matters
E. In recognition of importance of Japan, India, Brazil, Germany, the number of permanent members may be increased in the future.The aims of Student Handout #22 are to:
1. Introduce students to the United Nations organizational make up
2. Describe the roles of the major organs
3. Relate why the UN, until recently, was not more successful in its proposed purpose, the resolution of conflict.
Provide each student with the handout describing the United Nations system or beam material onto a screen. The first major organ to identify is the General Assembly, the UN’s congress or parliamentary body. All member nations are represented in this organ and may introduce and / or vote on resolutions dealing with global issues or specific concerns. As the General Assembly is an umbrella organization, identify some sub-organs, specialized agencies, and committees and discuss their good works which many observers believe is the UN’s major contribution – Example – UNICEF
Perhaps the most important organ is the Security Council which is primarily responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security. However, until Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, the council had used force but once — in Korea (1950 – 1953), though small peacekeeping groups have routinely separated combatants willing to accept their presence. The third major organ is the Secretariat or Executive Branch which is headed by the Secretary General, usually a respected and conciliatory figure from a neutral country.
The fourth is the International Court of Justice which may decide disputes only if the parties are willing to be bound by the results. Obviously, the ICJ’s effectiveness is limited by that bow to sovereignty.
The fifth organ is the Economic & Social Council which is really an assembly of specialized problem solving agencies that spur economic development and eliminate diseases.Example: World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Health Organization
The sixth, the Trusteeship Council, so thoroughly performed its task of helping former colonies to become nations that it put itself out of business in 1994. Additional suggested lessons / evaluative experiences for handout #22 are:
1- Students develop a biographical sketch of current UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon and selected former UN leaders using the Internet, biographies, autobiographies, periodicals, encyclopedias. Some suggestions – Trygve Lie, Dag Hammarskjold, U Thant, Kofi Annan, and Javier Perez de Cuellar.
UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon
2- In groups, students evaluate UN performances in selected crises; first notecrisis, then explain UN initiative, lastly analyze effectiveness of UN action
3- Simulate a UN Security Council session for students to grasp its purpose and experience the process of conflict resolution
3- Search for a Model UN in your area and join it. Students act out:
A. Delegate roles
B. Represent the world’s governments
C. Address pertinent global issues
D. Write out and sponsor resolutions
E. Personally experience specific agencies – organs – committees from nationalistic and humanitarian perspectives. Each year, dozens of Metro Atlanta high schools send hundreds of students to Georgia State University in downtown Atlanta or Kennesaw State University in suburban Cobb County for a two day United Nations simulation. Each school’s delegation consists of the following: Gen. Ass. (2), Security Council (member – 2, observer – 1), Social Humanitarian and Cultural Comm. ( 1 ), Economic and Social Council ( 1), Political and Security Comm. ( 1), Special Comm. ( 1). Some schools enroll a number of teams ( 1-?) and even build entire International Relations courses around the UN format. If no Model UN exists in your region, consider attending the National M. U. N. held annually at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The purpose of Student Handout #23 is to apply the concept of collective security on a regional basis. In this case, western democratic NATO versus its past adversarial and disbanded communist counterpart, the Warsaw Pact Alliance.
NATO was conceived by President Roosevelt in 1945 to protect Western Europe from both internal and external aggression. Its importance grew when Soviet leader Joseph Stalin reneged on his Yalta promise to withdraw Russian forces from Eastern Europe upon liberation of the Nazis from the region. When Stalin pulled Central Europe into his sphere of influence too, 300,000 U. S. troops remained in Germany to back a multinational force pledged to defend Western Europe from a possible Russian invasion.
The Warsaw Pact was established as a:
1. Reaction to NATO’s creation
2. Means of communizing the formerly democratic Central European nations and pulling them into the expanding Russian empire
3. Way of providing a military buffer to forestall another Western European invader and guarantee Russian security
4. Device to place pressure on the NATO alliance to delink the European continent from its American military anchor
5. Chance for the Soviets of taking a giant step in realizing its dream of domination of the World Island as Mao Zedong’s communist insurgency was taking control of China at the time.
Mao ZedongChou en Lai Deng Hsiao Ping
The western alliance’s record of having kept the peace for over a half century motivated former U. S. Secretary of State George Schultz to declare on Dec. 7, 1988, that NATO was America’s single most successful foreign policy in the postwar period. It was also an expensive one, costing the U. S. more than $130 billion a year. This cost concerned many Americans because:
1. Many NATO countries have per capita incomes equal to the US
2. Financially contribute but a fraction of the costs compared to America
3. The U. S.’s continuing budget deficits raises cost questions
4. The Russian withdrawal from Central Europe alleviated the threat.
1988 NATO – Warsaw Pact attack force structure
All four factors influenced America to scale back its level of commitment and transfer to the allies a larger share of NATO’s defense budget.
Sample of NATO cost – staffing and military equipment for a single combat division
However, by June 1990, the collapse of communism in Central Europe, the receding of Marxism-Leninism in general, and Russia’s transformation into a market economy and democracy, were causing some allies to ask if NATO was still valid. Former Russian President Gorbachev declared in 1988 that NATO stood for navies,armies, tanks, obsolete and both pacts should be replaced by the CSCE, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Gorbachev’s recommendation that the CSCE, once a 35 member mostly ceremonial group now exceeding more than 50 countries, should play a more important role in shaping European security matters, has had limited application.
Former Yugoslavia
Never-the-less, the U. S. and its European allies believe that the world remains a dangerous place and point to the Balkans (Yugoslavia 1945 – 1995), specifically Serbian aggression against the Croatians and Muslim Bosnian-Herzegovinians, as a prime example of explosive local conflicts that had to be contained. For the time being however, the allies believe that NATO and a strong U.S. role in it are still valid and needed.
After German reunification, the nation of 80,000,000 was expected to play a larger role as a NATO cornerstone – its leadership has been primarily economic.
Russian forces withdrew to purely defensive positions and sizable mutual reductions of both conventional and nuclear forces took place through the year 2000. Basically, NATO’s concept changed from a giant land army to a smaller, faster, and predominately European led military strike force that mostly uses U.S. planes and ships.
The French and Germans formed a new defense force with 35,000 soldiers, and expected at least four other European nations to later join this Euro army too. While President Bush 41 applauded the Europeans for doing more to defend themselves, the proposed continental army caused friction between the allies and the U.S. who opposed its establishment.
The American government presented the Europeans with several thorny points which brought into question the future of NATO in general:
1. Do the European nations have the internal unity and political resolve to defend them selves? The US was inclined to think not at the time and feared that a Europe unhinged from America might come unglued.
2. Did not the creation of a new Euro army render NATO and U. S. participation in it irrelevant? The US tended to think so and was ready and willing to pull out of Europe entirely. The French, the real force behind this new army, countered that a strong U. S. anchor was crucial to European stability and prosperity. Former Secretary of State James Baker’s view at that time was that NATO already served as a perfectly fine Euro army.
Provide each student with a copy of handout #23 or project onto a screen. Permit the class some time to compare former NATO and Warsaw Pact force levels. When done, ask the suggested following key discussion questions:
1. Why were Warsaw Pact forces numerically greater than NATO’s?
2. Were USSR force levels in excess of legitimate Soviet security needs? Why?
3. What size and type of Russian military force is needed to maintain nationalsecurity but also forestall an invasion of Western Europe?
Boris Yeltsin’s successors have honored all agreements, have not reverted back to a mode of total intimidation upon Russian economic renewal, though at times have acted unconstructively such as supporting Syrian President Basher al Assad during the two year long civil war that has cost over 100,000 lives.
Russia has traditionally been a land power and the US a maritime nation. NATO’s strategic concept was to hold off a Soviet invasion until reinforcements could be airlifted from the US to bolster the western alliance. The USSR had a huge land area and long borders to protect – the challenge was to keep their Central European satellites subdued while combating NATO too. Furthermore, the Soviets were aware of NATO’s economic advantage and technological edge.
The Russians have halved the size of their military while slowly modernizing all weaponry. Yeltsin re-cast the army’s role to putting down ethnic conflicts on Russia’s borders. The future is always difficult to predict, but though glasnost and perestroika failed to save the Soviet empire, the reforms did lead to Russia and her neighbor’s becoming a commonwealth of relatively friendly, democratic trading nations.
After the August, 1991, putsch by communist hardliners, Yeltsin courageously dismantled the Kremlin political superstructure and banned the communist party. The deteriorating economy though produced fear and uncertainty among ordinary people, conditions in which dictatorships have traditionally flourished.
Student Handout #24 – Collective Security Simulation Experience: TheContinental Containment Strategy Game is an exercise designed to assess both continental and intercontinental power relationships and reinforce the aims of handout #23. Reproduce eight or more copies of handout #24 and after dividing the class into the same number of groups, provide each with a copy for an eventual group report. This lesson may take place either in the media center or classroom. If the latter, borrow the necessary materials to perform this research oriented task.
Assign each group one of the following geographical areas to represent:North America (includes Central America) , South America, Europe, Asia, Indian
subcontinent area (India, Pakistan, Iran, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Myanmar), Africa, Arabian subcontinent (Saudi Arabia and surrounding Middle Eastern countries –
Jordan
Bangladesh
Egypt, Syria, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait), and Australasia. Egypt may also be placed in Africa which can be subdivided into at least three regions / groups (northeastern – Egypt; western – Nigeria; southern – South Africa).
EgyptNigeria
Next, identify for each group a hypothetical imperialistic power supposedly determined to establish hegemony over its region and a small weak power to be sacrificed to it as an example of fruitless appeasement: N. A. – U. S. A. and Panama,
PanamaUruguay
S. A. – Brazil and Uruguay, Europe – Russia and Austria, Asia – China and Cambodia, Indian subcontinent – India and Myanmar, Africa – Nigeria and Liberia, Arabian subcontinent Iraq and Kuwait, Australasia – Australia or Indonesia and
IndonesiaPapua – New Guinea
Papua-New Guinea. Groups are to research the population sizes, economic power, and military capabilities of the remaining countries in order to establish a collective security arrangement strong enough to subdue or contain the aggressor.
In some cases, it may be concluded that the aggressor will easily realize its goal of a regional or even global empire. Finally, each group will report its conclusions to the rest of the class.
Student Handout #25 provides examples of actual continental and intercontinental collective security arrangements. Some are essentially political, economic, or military in nature. After reproducing a copy for each student or projecting an image onto a screen, introduce the list of varying examples to the class. Identify the examples that are primarily political in nature. Examples: OAA – Organization of American States were originally established under the 1934 Rio Pact as a Western hemispheric mutual defense treaty but has more or less evolved into a basically political arrangement.
ASEAN – Association of Southeast Asian Nations – is evolving from a political arrangement into an economic union and possibly even a collective security concept down the road.
EEC – European Economic Council – transformed the Common Market into an integrated free trade zone and possibly some day a United States of Europe
ANZUS – Australia, New Zealand, United States
Military – ANZUS: A mutual defense treaty between Australia, New Zealand andthe United States to defend the Southern Pacific area. Bring attention to the factthat ANZUS was strained for several years due to New Zealand’s declaring itself anuclear free zone which made its ports off limits to US warships carrying atomicweapons and thus harder for America to militarily aid it. However, with the end ofthe Cold War, America’s removing nuclear weapons from all naval ships has endedthe dispute. Please conclude this lesson by asking guiding questions ordered toreinforce Unit 5’s basic concepts:
1. Understand the reasons for, and importance of, political, economic, and collective security military pacts
2. That the present and future trend is towards more and expanded cooperative arrangements
3. That such arrangements are the most reliable means for building a stable, peaceful, and prosperous world order.
Student Handout #20: Preparatory Reading: A History of Collective Security
European Colonialism, Imperialism, and Militarism
From about 1660 to 1914, Europe enjoyed a period called the Belle Époqueor Beautiful Era. The economies of England, France, Germany and Austria-Hungary had already industrialized and their cultures were highly developed. Thesepowerful countries felt strongly that they were the most advanced and cultivated nation – states of their day.
Austria
Hungary
At the same time, intense _____________________ made each country also wantto spread their civilizations. Each empire maintained large standing armies poisedfor war and constantly designed ever deadlier weapons systems ( _____________)
Competition to establish colonies abroad for glory and foreign markets to sellindustrial goods to caused these European powers to take over the less developedcountries of Africa and Asia _________.)Attempts to gain strategic advantage over the other led to a Rubric’s cube of concealed, shift- ing relationships( _______ _______).
Secret Alliances and World War I
All the great powers were rivals or conspirators. Instability was heightenedby each seeking prizes such as the Balkans (formerly Yugoslavia) and all taking steps that risked war.
Russiawas in need of a warm water port and coveted a direct route into the Mediterranean Sea.
Germany sought dominance over Central Europe and encouraged neighboringAustria- Hungary to encroach on a Serbia inflamed with nationalism.
England and France, concerned about being cut off from their overseas possessions, urged Russia, the self-proclaimed protector of the Slavic peoples, to stop Austria – and Germany too – from possibly taking over the strategic Balkans.
Turkey, declining but still a dominant force in the Middle East, also threw in with Germany. This alarmed England and France, who in order to hem in these Central Powers, secretly formed an Entente’ with Russia.
With each chess-like move, tensions increased. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, son ofAustrian Emperor Franz Joseph, made a political trip to Serbia to win the heartsand minds of the people. Instead, a Serbian nationalist who saw Austria-Hungary asthe principal roadblock to Serbian regional hegemony shot and killed Ferdinand.
The assassin envisioned a Greater Serbia that exercised control over Slovenia,Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia.
A chain reaction of tragic bluffing and standoffs was set in motion.
Austria-Hungary, with Germany’s blessing, mobilized to punish Serbia.
Russia mobilized on Serbia’s behalf. Germany backed Austria. England and France, wishing to contain Germany, now openly sided with Russia. Germany, faced with powerful France on its western flank and massive Russia to itseast, feared invasion by both. Sandwiched, Germany savagely invaded Belgium tostrike France. England responded by confronting Germany in Belgium.
Thus began a four yearlong holocaust. In 1917, America finally abandoned its_____________ ____________ of ____________________ and entered the waron the side of England and France. Russia had been pulled out of the war by Bolshevik leaders Lenin and Trotsky who focused on consolidating communism inRussia.
Vladimir Lenin Leon Trotsky
American military power stopped the __________ by tilting the ______________ _____________towards England and France. Germany was blamed for starting the war and had crippling economic _________________imposed on it.
A League of Nations
U. S. President Woodrow Wilson believed ____________________ was preferable to war for solving problems between nations. Wilson also felt that ______ ______ had been a major cause of WW I and declared that every _______________ be an open covenant between nations.
Wilson’s own idealistic fourteenth point put forth the notion of a League of Nations pact. Wilson’s crusade to make the world safe for democracy through global disarmament and cooperation was a mission that failed at the time. But over the course of the past century, Wilson’s vision of a more orderly and freely trading world may be at hand.
Failure of the Senate to ratify the peace treaty and rejection of world leadership
Why? Too hopeful perhaps, for Wilson’s own country would refuse to join his League of Nations. Some historians say that Wilson misinterpreted his 1916 reelection victory as a mandate to enter the war. Almost all claim that the Democratic President unwisely neglected to include any Republican leaders among his negotiating team. Out of touch with the isolationist sentiment buildingin the United States, Wilson returned from Paris only to be crushed by the Senate’s rejection of his grand vision to outlaw__________________.
It’s often been quoted that the seeds of WW II were rooted in the peace treaty of WW I. Four old men – Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George of England, Pierre Clemenceau of France, and Vitoria Orlando of Italy partitioned the earth.
Clemenceau was deaf to Wilson’s pleas to be lenient with Germany. The Frenchman, having lived through two German invasions within forty-five years, demanded revenge and got it.
Rise of Fascism
The Republicans succeeded the Democrats in 1920 and returned to isolationist policies. Without U.S. participation, the League became a convenient vehicle for English and French interests. Or so thought the rising fascist leaders of Italy, Germany and Japan.
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
Fascism, a belief in an all powerful state, first came to power in Italy in 1922. Benito Mussolini, a former strikebreaker, promised to smash mounting disorder. Germany, weak and shamed, followed Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party who took over in 1933 by swearing to avenge the rape at Versailles.
Washington Naval Conference, 1921, 5-5-3 ratio applied
Japan, slighted by the U. S., England, and France at the Washington Conference in 1921, the lone significant world disarmament effort in the 1920’s, was taken over by a Samurai worshipping military clique in 1937. Within four years, Japan would conquer most of Asia and also transform the formerly U.S. dominated Pacific Ocean into a Japanese lake.
In 1935, Italy, borrowing on the _____________ of ancient Rome, tried to colonize Ethiopia. Continued unchecked aggression by the Axis powers discredited theLeague and made it appear weak and increasingly irrelevant.Appeasement as a DeterrentWith America using the Atlantic and the Pacific as moats to hide behind, the League, really England and France, faced two realities. The Axis powers were extending their spheres of influence to the far corners of the earth. Second, the democracies appeared unwilling to militarily engage the fascists.
The Axis powers saw this as a sign of weakness and decadence and unwisely concluded that they could expand indefinitely. In 1936, a civil war in Spain between the democratic government and fascist elements led by Gen. Francisco Franco broke out.
Hitler and Mussolini supported Franco with men and arms; the League did very little and the U. S. remained neutral. Only Russia was willing to help the democrats or loyalists which then gave their cause a communist taint. Sadly, and despite help from a volunteer American contingent called the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the fascists again triumphed over democracy.
After WW I, the border between Germany and the newly created state of Czechoslovakia was drawn in a way that placed about a 100,000 Germans in the Czech province called theSudetenland. In 1939, Hitler insisted that these ethnic Germans be returned to The Fatherland. Hitler’s claim was that with the return of the Sudetenland, his twin quests of uniting the Germanic peoples of Europe under one flag and addressing the wrongs done to Germany at Versailles in 1919 would be satisfied.
The Cold War Begins
Russia, America’s ally during WW II, refused to honor an agreement to evacuate Central Europe at the war’s end. This advance of communism threatened Western Europe, the countries we had just helped save from the Nazis. Also, the
_________________ ______________ ________________ ___________ , backed by 300,000 U.S. troops stationed in Germany, helped deter a Soviet invasion.
The formation of this Western European _______________ ___________________arrangement caused the Soviet bloc to form the _______________ __________ alliance so that they could counter any attack by NATO forces.For more than 45 years, NATO maintained the _______________ __ __________ by using its more advanced technology to offset the Warsaw Pact’s superiority in manpower and armaments totals. Furthermore, both sides mounting arsenals of weapons delivery systems with nuclear warheads fostered a ______________ ____ ________________ that has also helped to avoid war. This equal ability of each to destroy the other is called __________ ___________ _________________.
United Nations Comes of Age
The Cold War between Pax Americana and Pax Sovieticus was largely a standoff. The Soviets made some gains among poorer third world nations while the richest and most powerful countries remained firmly within the Western alliance. In fact, America’s global security arrangements worked reasonably well. World war was prevented mainly because even conventional (non-nuclear) war between the two superpowers grew much too terrifyi ng to risk.
The most dangerous flashpoint was at the Fulda Gap in Czechoslovakia just across the border from Germany. The Soviets had nearly 50,000 tanks poised for invasion that was unstoppable short of using atomic weapons – the nuclear tripwire. 300,000 U.S. soldiers were insufficient to stop this invasion and were essentially hostage to the situation. The threat of nuclear annihilation kept the Soviets and Warsaw Pact at bay.
Russian First Secretary Michael Gorbachev and U. S. President Ronald Reagan in Iceland
In the late 1980’s, American and Soviet leaders agreed that their continuing military buildups were draining their countries of treasure that could be better spent on their peoples. Several sizable reductions of both nuclear and conventional armaments took place by the year 2000.
The Berlin Wall was torn down on Nov. 9, 1989, allowing for the reunification of Germany. The captive Central European nations were freed and permitted to become market economies and democracies. Russia followed suit shortly after.
The defunct Warsaw Pact, in its short history, had only two military engagements: both allies; Hungary (1956), and Czechoslovakia (1968). With the threat diminished, NATO was forced to reexamine its purpose for existence.
Did President Woodrow Wilson’s (1913 – 1921) dream of a League of Nations to outlaw war by stopping aggression fail, or simply take another century to materialize?
The Munich Appeasement
Directions: The below quotes supposedly stated by then Member of Parliament Sir Winston Churchill and Nazi leader Adolph Hitler were reactions to the:
1. Appeasement of German territorial demands on Czechoslovakia
2. The belief among many people that if the Sudetenland was sacrificed to Germany, it would soon swallow all of Czechoslovakia
3. English Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s declaration upon returning from the Munich meeting with Hitler that peace had been achieved in our time. After reading the two quotes, please answer the following summary questions.
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WINSTON CHURCHILL: The partition of Czechoslovakia amounts to the complete surrender of the Western democracies to the Nazi threat of force. Such a collapse will bring peace or security neither to England or France. On the contrary, it willplace these two nations in an ever weaker position. The belief that security canbe won by throwing a small state to the wolves is a fata1 mistake.
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ADOLPH HITLER: England and France are decadent and weak. I knew we’d get what we wanted. But even I was surprised that it only took three hours. I mean, there wasn’t the slightest objection to anything. I’ll never forget Daladier’s (the French Foreign Minister) words; “Well, now, I guess I’ll have to convey the verdict to the condemned.”
Munich Appeasement Summary Questions
1- How did Churchill’s view of the Munich agreement differ from those of Neville Chamberlain’s?
2- Compare Hitler’s reaction to the alarm displayed by Churchill. Evaluate Hitler’s level of respect for the Western democracies moral and military strength.
3- Should Chamberlain be given some credit for giving peace one more chance to work? Or was this a situation in which he should have realized that only the threat of force was going to impress a militarist like Hitler? Why?
4- Were the allies actually just not ready to confront Hitler? Can a nation afford to be militarily unprepared with an aggressor such as Hitler loose in the world? Why?
4- Why has the name Munich become synonymous with moral bankruptcy in foreign policy? Can there ever be any justification for handing over a small weak state to a powerful aggressor? Why?
Description of the United Nations, its organs, and their functions:
Directions: The United Nations is the world’s first serious attempt at a functioning global collective security arrangement. The aims of this handout are:
1. Identify major U. N. organs and their functions
2. Recognize the important roles the minor organizations within the umbrella of the General Assembly and the Economic & Social Council perform in the world
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of the Security Council in deterring aggression worldwide since its inception in 1945. Identify reason(s) why this organ has had very limited success, then research how and why this organ is finally becoming the forum and instrument for world peace that it was originally designed to be.
THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL
The Security Council has 15 members including:
5 permanent members – U.S., Russia, United Kingdom, France and China
10 non-permanent members elected for 2 year terms, 5 each year.
Discussionhas taken place about expanding the Security Council to include Japan and possibly India, Germany, and Brazil.
Permanent UN Security Council Members
The Security Councilis the principal UN organ for the maintenance of international peace and security. By signing the U. N. Charter, member nations agree to obey the council decisions. In reality though, the council has been unable to effectively organize a UN police force and has used force in only two instances — Korea ( 1950-53) and Kuwait (1989-90).
Procedural matters, the establishment of a working committee for example, require the vote of any 9 members, while substantive matters, relating to settlement of a dispute, require 9 votes also, including all five of the permanent members. Therefore, any permanent member can VETO any substantive resolution.
Any nation may bring any international dispute, which has the possibility of war, to the attention of the council. The nation need not be a member of the UN to do so.
Selected Examples of Specialized UN Agencies
Abbreviation NamePurpose
WHO
WMO
GATT
UNICEF
IMF
ILO
NATO Preamble and Purpose:
The Parties to this Treaty reaffirm their faith in the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and their desire to live in peace with all peoples and all governments. They are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilization of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty, and the rule of law. They seek to promote stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area. They are resolved to unite their efforts for collective defense and for the preservation of peace and security. They therefore agree to this North Atlantic Treaty.
This treaty signed April 4, 1949, contains 14 articles which describes in detail provisions for common defense. The important point to understand is that an attack against one NATO member was and is considered to be an attack against all the other Western European and North American members too.
Collective Security Simulation Experience:
THE CONTINENTAL CONTAINMENT STRATEGY GAME
Directions: The aim of this lesson is to assess continental and intercontinental power relationships. The class is to form eight groups, each representing either a continental or sub-continental region. Your teacher will assign areas and also identify for each group a:
1. Hypothetical imperialistic power supposedly determined to establish hegemony (dominance) over its region
2. Small weak power to be sacrificed to the great power as an example of appeasement.
All groups are to research the population sizes, economic power, and military capabilities of the remaining regional countries in order to establish a collective security arrangement strong enough to subdue or contain the aggressor. In some cases, it may be concluded that the aggressor will easily realize its goal of a regional empire. Each group will report its research findings to the class upon completing the assignment. A grade will be determined on the intelligence and thoroughness of the research and serious of presentation. For homework, play the board game or computer software version of RISK, if possible, to reinforce the basic points of the lesson.
Continent / subcontinent: ___________________________________________________
Great regional power ___________________________________________________
Small weak regional state to be sacrificed ___________________________________________________
Additional real life examples of continental / intercontinental collective security, economic, political arrangements:
Directions:
1. Identify the following abbreviations of actual regional / global pacts by writing out their full names
2. Establish if the arrangement’s concept is military (collective security), political, or economic in nature by researching its role and history
3. Research each pact’s present “health” or situation and make predictions about its future possible evolutionary development.
EEC / EU –
ASEAN –
ANZUS –
OPEC –
OAU –
OAS –
APEC –
Real life application:
Identify the global and regional agencies most likely to be utilized in combating the spread of radiation leakingfrom the Japanese nuclear reactor that was damaged by the Tsunami. Describe the assets and role theseagencies may bring to the solution? How are you affected by this problem?