President Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima: Was there a realistic alternative to this course of action?
Essay - 6 pages - Modern history
On the morning of August 6, 1945, the United States dropped, on the city of Hiroshima, the first of the only two nuclear bombs ever employed against human population, killing more than 115.000 people - probably as many as 250.000 according to the highest estimates - and injuring at least another...
Analysis of armed conflicts Mr Cook - The Six-Day War
Case study - 10 pages - Educational studies
Seen as an ineffaceable trauma for Arabs and a poisoned victory for Israel, the Six-Day War has been a strategic moment in the history of the Middle East. Before developing the topic, a brief reminder of the previous Israeli-Arab relations is necessary to better situate and understand what led to...
DPRK and Juche Ideology
Thesis - 3 pages - Social sciences
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) came to being as a result of a storied history. It was initially ruled by the Korean Empire until it came under Japanese control as a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. Following this, the nation was split up into zones that were occupied by...
What are the main milestones in the emergence of the Palestinian problem and the Arab-Israeli conflict?
Essay - 8 pages - International relations
In January 2006, the Islamic militant group Hamas won the Palestinian Parliamentary elections, with 42,2% of the votes. The election in Palestine of a group that remains committed to an armed struggle, the destruction of Israel and retaliatory attacks on Israeli civilians shows that nearly sixty...
Can one compare Nazism with Communism?
Essay - 11 pages - Modern history
The only truth that the totalitarian power recognizes is the one needed at the time, and the only freedom that the power recognizes, is that of expressing the "truth". It is in these very powerful words that Vaclav Havel described a characteristic of totalitarian rule in his Political Essays in...
The Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) in the post cold-war Europe
Essay - 5 pages - International relations
The CSCE (Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe) was born with the Helsinki final act in 1975, as the territorial statu quo seemed definitely taken for granted by both the communist block and western countries. On the 1st of August 1975, 35 heads of states from Europe, the US and...
How is the violence against populations expressed during the Second World War?
Essay - 3 pages - Modern history
The Great War resulted in the brutalisation of society and the emergence of totalitarian regimes, which had enormous repercussions on the civilian populations during the Second World War. Totalitarian regimes are political regimes based on a single party, on political police, on the...
The Foreign Policy Transition: Isolationist to Internationalist
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
Many people describe the period between World War I and World War II as a time of United States isolationism, but that is a common misconception. While it is true that during the interwar period America was very politically isolationist, the country was very imperialistic economically. Following...
Tension Through Melodies: Music of the Cold War
Essay - 4 pages - Modern history
Music serves as a reflection of a society. When a society is prospering, the music is noticeably happier, such as the Big Band phenomenon in the roaring 20's. The same principle applies to a society going through rough times, such as jazz during the years of the Great Depression. The Cold War...
Soviet Literature: A clearly defined and a Poor quality Literature? Literary policies and their consequences on Soviet Literature, and perceptions of this one
Thesis - 15 pages - Services marketing
The Soviet Communist ideology which has ruled everything in the Soviet Union for decades was based on Marx's ideas, concepts as Dialectical Materialism. In this theory the world was in perpetual process of change, this through a dialectical movement which was made of conflict between the...
What are human rights and what place have discussions on human rights found in international relations?
Thesis - 8 pages - International relations
Though they may disagree on the importance of this phenomenon, most international experts now admit that there is a growing concern, both from states and from people, for Human Rights in international relations. Human Rights are often used to legitimate an action (diplomatic pressures, economic...
Why did communism become established in Eastern Europe after the Second World War? - published: 15/01/2009
Essay - 7 pages - Modern history
On the 25th of April 1945, shortly before the official end of the Second World War, American and Soviet soldiers meet at the Elbe river. But to reach the Elbe river, the Russian troops had to come all the way across Europe, and so across Eastern Europe. By the end of the same year, seven states...
The FARC: Are we at the story's end?
Thesis - 12 pages - Social sciences
The Fuerzas armadas revolucionarias de Colombia - Ejército del Pueblo, more generally known under their shortest acronym: FARC, have been playing a great part in Columbia's political life since 1964. For more than forty years, it has been that the first guerilla involved in the Columbian armed...
The Cuban missile crisis and its resolution
Thesis - 6 pages - Political science
The Cuban Missile crisis was an event that put the whole world on tenterhooks as two of the World's super powers got engaged in a cold war, which almost led to a nuclear war. The conflict began with U.S' discovery of offensive weapons in Cuba. The whole world watched with bated breath as the two...
The middle finger that is Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove"
Thesis - 5 pages - Literature
By the time Churchill dropped the iron curtain across Europe, America was giving up on the idea of a cooperative relationship with the Soviet Union. Foreign policy was being dictated by such blatant anti-communist and anti-Russian works as the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, as well as the...
Why did communism become established in Eastern Europe after the Second World War?
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
Shortly before the official end of the Second World War, on 25th April 1945, American and Soviet soldiers met at the Elbe. In order to reach the Elbe River, the Russian troops had to come all the way across Europe, thus crossing Eastern Europe. By the end of the same year, seven states occupied...
Can the proliferation of nuclear weapons of mass destruction be halted?
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
Proliferation is a traditional issue of International Security and has always been at the heart of strategic analysis. In the last few weeks, the International Community has been worried about the situation in Pakistan. General Musharaff proclaimed a state of emergency and convened general...
Africa in the International system by Christopher - A review
Book review - 4 pages - International relations
During the cold war, Africa was probably the smallest concern of both the superpowers. The Afro-superpowers relationship has often been reduced to the sterile formula of African independence versus superpower imperialism. Actually, African leaders often had a certain freedom of action as they...
Conflicts in Africa
Essay - 9 pages - International relations
Ever since 50 years Africa is the continent with highest concentration of conflicts in its territory. Marginalized within the international system because of its small economic size, Africa still remains a subject of interest to study International Relations. At a time when maOver the past 50...
The weaknesses of Stalin's rivals contributed more to his rise as a dictator than did Stalin's own strengths as a leader - A comment.
Thesis - 2 pages - Political science
Few dictators in modern World History have been as feared and rivaled as Josef Stalin (Iosif Dzhugashvili); being probably one of the most discrepant leaders in the 20th century, he served as the head of the Bolshevik party and Soviet government, Lenin's companion-in-arms and organizer of the...
Conformity, radicals, conservatives, and Clinton
Essay - 8 pages - Modern history
In the United States, the 1950s was the rise of suburbia. Undeveloped areas were constructed into planned communities. One of the most famous subdivisions of this time was known as Levittown. Levittown was a political subdivision of Long Island, New York. It was the first truly mass-produced...
International relations, theory and practice: the Second Kashmir war
Thesis - 5 pages - International relations
I will deal in this essay with the Second Kashmir War, which was a war between India and Pakistan in 1965. We will see how we can interpret the causes and the origins of the war, and the way it was ended and solved. I chose to use two different theories to interpret the Indo-Pakistani war of...
What were the central features of Stalinism in Eastern Europe?
Essay - 6 pages - Modern history
The term “Stalinism” refers to the brutal dictatorship which lasted from 1927 to 1953 in Russia and Eastern European countries. Although he was the leader of Soviet Russia, after the Second World War Stalin soon became the dictator of a Soviet Union which had expanded to most of Eastern...
Africa: a cold war proxy field?
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
In most discourses about International Relations, Africa is described as a ‘victim' of external powers - namely its former colonisers, the United States and, as far as the Cold War period is concerned, the Soviet Union. For instance, it is said that African wars in the post-colonial era were...
Churchill & Roosevelt during the Second World War: The Special Relationship
Essay - 9 pages - International relations
The 7 December 1941, Japan attacked the American fleet in Pearl Harbor. From then on, the war is no more only European but officially global. The next day, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, president of the United States, declared war on Japan. With the coming into play of the American giant, the...
Mao's reforms: A total failure?
Essay - 5 pages - Modern history
“In time of difficulties, we must not lose sight of our achievements.” This quotation from the Communist leader Mao Tse-Tung (1893-1976) could perfectly apply to his economic policy. When Mao came to power in October 1949, China was out of a decade of war and its economy was still very...
Occidental intelligences facing Middle East's quest for nuclear weapons: the case of Israel Vs. the case of Iran
Essay - 10 pages - International relations
The nuclear bomb is much more than a common weapon, it can determine the balance of the powers, it is a crucial point for understanding the international strategic relations: the nuclear bomb represents the possibility for a country to be wiped off the map. Between 1950 and 1990, it is important...
United States foreign policy
Course material - 5 pages - Modern history
A period of political isolation intervened between the end of WWI and the entrance of the US into WWII. In the 1930s new threats to world peace appeared through Japan's invasion of China; Italy's invasion of Ethiopia; the Spanish Civil War; Germany's occupation of Austria; and...
Communism in the USA
Thesis - 3 pages - International relations
To establish a real picture of communism in the USA and to understand its actual situation, I will first talk about the reasons why the USA cannot be seen as the best place to be a communist and then I will ask myself whether we can say there is an agony of communism in the country since 1990.
The Japanese expansionism during the first part of the Showa Era: 1926-1945
Essay - 7 pages - Modern history
In 1926, Hirohito, the grandson of the Meiji emperor, reached the throne and chose Showa ("enlightened Peace") as the official name of his reign. However, the General Tanaka Giichi became Prime Minister in 1927, confirming the dominating role of the army. The fast industrialization of the country...
