The Russian Origins of the First World War

The Russian Origins of the First World War
Author: Sean McMeekin
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2013-05-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674072332

The catastrophe of the First World War, and the destruction, revolution, and enduring hostilities it wrought, make the issue of its origins a perennial puzzle. Since World War II, Germany has been viewed as the primary culprit. Now, in a major reinterpretation of the conflict, Sean McMeekin rejects the standard notions of the war’s beginning as either a Germano-Austrian preemptive strike or a “tragedy of miscalculation.” Instead, he proposes that the key to the outbreak of violence lies in St. Petersburg. It was Russian statesmen who unleashed the war through conscious policy decisions based on imperial ambitions in the Near East. Unlike their civilian counterparts in Berlin, who would have preferred to localize the Austro-Serbian conflict, Russian leaders desired a more general war so long as British participation was assured. The war of 1914 was launched at a propitious moment for harnessing the might of Britain and France to neutralize the German threat to Russia’s goal: partitioning the Ottoman Empire to ensure control of the Straits between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Nearly a century has passed since the guns fell silent on the western front. But in the lands of the former Ottoman Empire, World War I smolders still. Sunnis and Shiites, Arabs and Jews, and other regional antagonists continue fighting over the last scraps of the Ottoman inheritance. As we seek to make sense of these conflicts, McMeekin’s powerful exposé of Russia’s aims in the First World War will illuminate our understanding of the twentieth century.

History of International Relations and Russian Foreign Policy in the 20th Century (Volume II)

History of International Relations and Russian Foreign Policy in the 20th Century (Volume II)
Author: Anatoly V. Torkunov
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2020-02
Genre:
ISBN: 9781527543799

This second volume, focusing on 1945-1991, unpacks the reasons for the Cold War and takes the reader through its ebbs, flows and unexpected end. How did the allies of World War II become enemies? The authors argue that the Cold War controversy could have been avoided, or at least mitigated, had the sides been guided by healthy pragmatism instead of ideology and megalomania. Contradictory relations between the superpowers, regional wars and conflicts, and the scramble to escape a nuclear Holocaustâ "all of this reads sometimes as a good detective story. Perestroika and Glasnost, useful as they might be, came too late to radically improve the poisonous atmosphere of enmity in East-West relations. The end of the Cold War did not mean the end of rivalry. Good will in this case did not guarantee good outcomes. As civilizational, cultural, personal and religious contradictions begin to replace economic and social divides, we need to be fully aware of our past if we are to do our best to resolve these issues.

Between Empire and Continent

Between Empire and Continent
Author: Andreas Rose
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 542
Release: 2017-05-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1785335790

Prior to World War I, Britain was at the center of global relations, utilizing tactics of diplomacy as it broke through the old alliances of European states. Historians have regularly interpreted these efforts as a reaction to the aggressive foreign policy of the German Empire. However, as Between Empire and Continent demonstrates, British foreign policy was in fact driven by a nexus of intra-British, continental and imperial motivations. Recreating the often heated public sphere of London at the turn of the twentieth century, this groundbreaking study carefully tracks the alliances, conflicts, and political maneuvering from which British foreign and security policy were born.

Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 535
Release:
Genre:
ISBN: 0544716248

Russia and the West from Alexander to Putin

Russia and the West from Alexander to Putin
Author: Andrei P. Tsygankov
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2012-06-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1139537008

Since Russia has re-emerged as a global power, its foreign policies have come under close scrutiny. In Russia and the West from Alexander to Putin, Andrei P. Tsygankov identifies honor as the key concept by which Russia's international relations are determined. He argues that Russia's interests in acquiring power, security and welfare are filtered through this cultural belief and that different conceptions of honor provide an organizing framework that produces policies of cooperation, defensiveness and assertiveness in relation to the West. Using ten case studies spanning a period from the early nineteenth century to the present day - including the Holy Alliance, the Triple Entente and the Russia-Georgia war - Tsygankov's theory suggests that when it perceives its sense of honor to be recognized, Russia cooperates with the Western nations; without such a recognition it pursues independent policies either defensively or assertively.

The New Russian Foreign Policy

The New Russian Foreign Policy
Author: Michael Mandelbaum
Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations
Total Pages: 216
Release: 1998
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780876092132

This book surveys Russia's relations with the world since 1992 and assesses the future prospect for the foreign policy of Europe's largest country. Together these essays offer an authoritative summary and assessment of Russia's relations with its neighbors and with the rest of the world since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russia

Russia
Author: Ljubica Erickson
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Limited
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2005
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780297849131

This collection of essays, by an eminent and truly international range of scholars, covers a wide sweep of Russian history, starting with Russia's emergence as a world military power and ending with today's post-Soviet world, Professor Erickson's very personal contribution to detente is included too, in an analysis of the 'Edinburgh conversations' - the frank and open discussions on arms-control issues between key Western and Eastern officials that he arranged and conducted at the height of the Cold War.

Russian-Ottoman Borderlands

Russian-Ottoman Borderlands
Author: Lucien J. Frary
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2014-08-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 0299298043

During the nineteenth century—as violence, population dislocations, and rebellions unfolded in the borderlands between the Russian and Ottoman Empires—European and Russian diplomats debated the “Eastern Question,” or, “What should be done about the Ottoman Empire?” Russian-Ottoman Borderlands brings together an international group of scholars to show that the Eastern Question was not just one but many questions that varied tremendously from one historical actor and moment to the next. The Eastern Question (or, from the Ottoman perspective, the Western Question) became the predominant subject of international affairs until the end of the First World War. Its legacy continues to resonate in the Balkans, the Black Sea region, and the Caucasus today. The contributors address ethnicity, religion, popular attitudes, violence, dislocation and mass migration, economic rivalry, and great-power diplomacy. Through a variety of fresh approaches, they examine the consequences of the Eastern Question in the lives of those peoples it most affected, the millions living in the Russian and Ottoman Empires and the borderlands in between.

America in the World

America in the World
Author: Robert B. Zoellick
Publisher: Twelve
Total Pages: 764
Release: 2020-08-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1538712369

America has a long history of diplomacy–ranging from Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson to Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, and James Baker–now is your chance to see the impact these Americans have had on the world. Recounting the actors and events of U.S. foreign policy, Zoellick identifies five traditions that have emerged from America's encounters with the world: the importance of North America; the special roles trading, transnational, and technological relations play in defining ties with others; changing attitudes toward alliances and ways of ordering connections among states; the need for public support, especially through Congress; and the belief that American policy should serve a larger purpose. These traditions frame a closing review of post-Cold War presidencies, which Zoellick foresees serving as guideposts for the future. Both a sweeping work of history and an insightful guide to U.S. diplomacy past and present, America in the World serves as an informative companion and practical adviser to readers seeking to understand the strategic and immediate challenges of U.S. foreign policy during an era of transformation.

Men of Influence

Men of Influence
Author: Sabine Dullin
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2019-07-26
Genre: Europe
ISBN: 1474467873

Sabine Dullin has researched the history of Soviet diplomacy from 1930-1939 through a variety of now-accessible diplomatic political, administrative, and social archives. She had added to this mix the memories and testimonies of diplomatic personnel. In particular, her book sheds light on the role of Maxime Litvinov.