The essay includes an overview of international relations
The essay includes an overview of international relations as well as a close examination of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which was established following the Second World War to check the rise and influence of the Soviet Union. The paper also places the philosophical traditions of liberalism, critical theory, and realism in perspective. Realism as a philosophy is founded on the feature of idealistic thinking during wartime, but the freedom approach draws on the nature of countries banding together to become superpowers that work to maintain peace and stability. The liberalism theory takes into account the fact that countries find their preferences before their capabilities (Belloc and Hilaire 2007, 89). Therefore, they strive to combine forces with the high and the like-minded nations to create alliances that stand to help the member countries in the hour of need. Notably, the critical theory seeks to end inequality in the world where some nations in the world try to better themselves so as to stand a better chance in times of war.
Context
After the world war two, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics abbreviated as U.S.S.R occupied the majority of the countries in Europe. Back in the days, most of the nations of Europe had fallen into the hands of the Nazis during the war, and thus the two superpowers were left with the sole responsibility of setting up governments in the embattled continent (Borawski, John and Thomas 2001, 112). Each of the superpowers was promising free and fair elections, but in the end, none was able to deliver the same. Consequently, Europe as a whole was divided by the superpowers governing them where the Eastern became communists. Additionally, as tensions arose between the two super powers, the Soviets cut part of their area of Germany and closed any access to West Berlin which was located deep in the zones where the Soviets used to control. The even led to the significant historical event known as the Berlin airlift where allies to the country flew food, medical equipment, and other supplies to the country (Borawski and Young 2001, 113). Notably, the supply was a combined effort between the United States of America, France, and Britain all to save the country. Before the stalemate was resolved, over two million tons and supplies had been dropped. Soon after the Soviet Socialists, Republics started to withdraw from many of the countries under their control, but it was clear that they were not removing freely. They were demanding resources in return for their withdrawal.
In Iran, for example, the Soviets demanded to be given oil concessions in exchange for their withdrawal and Turkey, they demanded to be given access to the country's resources to spy on the western world.
Notably, the communists also supported a bloody civil war in Greece that led to the death of thousands of Greek citizens (Critchfield 2003, 154). The Soviets supported a communist coup in Czechoslovakia fully. The expansion of the Soviets influence in the Eastern Europe and the continued threat in Turkey and Greece brought a wave of awareness throughout Europe and as a result, in April 1949 in agreement with the United Nations Charter, twelve nations established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Defence 2008, 243). The organization was tasked to create and coordinate military defenses on the member states and defend them from any possible aggression from the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics. The states agreed that an attack on either of them was an attack against them all.
Theories
There are numerous methods of organizing the field of international relations, and the realism tradition is one of them. The culture views world politics as anarchic where there is a central authority, and there are no policemen to keep countries away from fighting each other. Consequently, security has always been an issue in the world (Griffiths and Martin 2008, 90). As a result, states can never be comfortable and relax without strengthening their safety borders and always being prepared for an external attack. Most realists view nations as the primary supporters of politics in the world. Notably, military power is the dominant aspect and determines the tune of the world governments. Realism is seen as a pessimistic point of view as it focuses mainly on the military power of various nations in the world (Handbook 2006, 76). The tradition maintains the view that conflict and war in the world will never end and that trouble will always be there and bad things will continue to happen even on the innocent nations. Due to the pessimistic nature of realism, the tradition is not popular in the United States as it is not in line with American democracy. Therefore, soon after the Soviet Union collapsed, it was an opportunity to pay less attention to the minor wars in the world. According to the realism point of view, the reason as to why the Soviet Union collapsed was the fact the Union could not keep up with the antagonism against the United States of America. Their lack of adequate power Foundation and their continued opposition from some different states led to their collapse. Therefore, the realist did not have a difficult time explaining the fall of the Soviet Union.
Notably, the happenings in the world, especially after the Second World War, was by the expectations of the realists (Mariano 2007, 85).
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was able to have a significant impact as a result of the disgruntled false that was holding the Soviet Union together collapsed. According to a realist point of view, the greatest fabric that holds alliances and countries together is the fear of external threats. Notably, since its inception the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is becoming weaker with time due to the increased peace stability in most of the countries and even though its membership is rising, its influence is reducing day by day (Steans and Jill 2014, 276). Notably, after the collapse of the Soviet Union it was expected all attention to turn back toward the United States, but even when George Bush became the president, the influence of the United States in the world have reduced as a super power.
Liberalism in the light of international relations relates to the act of foreign policy doctrines that argues that liberal states should intervene in other sovereign states so as to pursue liberal objectives.
The intervention can be in the form of humanitarian aid of military intervention. After the Second World War, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization used the concept of liberalism by assisting liberal countries that were still suffering from colonialism the common goal was to protect the member countries from the external aggression of the Soviet Union. Freedom brings about unity as many nations come together and declared peace in between them and declare war in any state that attacks the member states (Mariano and Stephen 2007, 132). Therefore, the tradition brought about peace and stability in the world and the world war seized for a moment.
Critical theory seeks to criticize the existing inequalities in power, wealth, and influence.
In the current world, the only actual superpower is the United States of America. Most of the wars that are being fought in the world today are the war on terrorism which is being fueled by the spirit of inequality injustices. Some nations in the world want to prove that they are superpowers by ranging war on other countries and people. However, critical theory was useful in especially during the formation of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Griffiths 2008). Many countries came together to form a super power that would shake the strengths of the Soviet Union. Consequently, the Union stood no chance to defeat the Organization leading to their subsequent surrender and dissolution.
Evaluation
Out of the three philosophical traditions, the Liberalism theory was successful in ending the cold war and establishing of peace in many of the countries in the world back in the days. The conflict of the Western nations inclusive of the United States, Great Britain, France and other nations and the communist east bloc grew big and as soon as guns fell silence after the end of the second world war. The Union of Soviet Socialists Republics had taken most of the countries that were under the influence of the Nazis after the war (NATO Handbook 2006, 253). As a result, the Western allies sought for ways to put to and end or mitigate the rise of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics. Therefore, they drew a Machiavellian plan to help member countries to reconstruct their infrastructure and rebuild their economies. The events that followed the end of the Second World War forced the western nations to have an aggressive approach to curbing the Soviets. The discussions that followed in April 1949 saw the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The original membership of the organization had Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United States of the member states (Steans 2014, 74).
However, France was unhappy with the administration of the organization due to its military action and hence withdrew from the group.
Therefore, through liberalism, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was born, and it was the first time peace military alliance the United States ever formed. After the destruction of the Second World War, the nations of Europe tried their best to reconstruct their economy and enhance their security. So as to establish their economies the countries needed massive aid to rebuild their war-torn landscapes and build industries and produce food.
In the period between the years 1947 to the year 1948, the civil wars that were being experienced in Greece forced the Western Europe to be more concerned with their internal security and their political affairs (Teigrob and Robert 2009, 75). The act resulted in more involvement of the United States to the affairs of Europe. Notably, attention was also switched to Italy as a communist party was threatening to come to power.
Conclusion
The main intellectual issue rising from the topic is the fact that the classical theories had an impact in the wars that were being experienced in the world back in the days in the Second World War. The factors that led to the commencement of the war were fueled by the feeling of controlling the whole world and emergence of superpowers. Consequently, nations fought against other countries and bloodshed was the order of the day (The Future Of NATO And European Defence 2008, 37). However, sobriety set and governments began coming together to condemn the wars and formed alliances to stop the wars. As a result, many countries got an opportunity to rebuild their economy and make the lives of their citizens better. The central point that emerges from the analysis of the traditional theories is that organizations such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization were formed to bring order in the warring nations and put to an end the bloodshed and the increased influence of the Soviet Union in the world war. The theories help to the better understanding of the future in the sense that in cases of any future occurrences of international conflicts, nations will have the ability to come up with friendly ways to restore peace in the world (Mariano 2007, 84). The Second World War serves as a great lesson to all nations in the world and acts as a warning of the negative consequences of such a general war. Notably, the states of the word should come together and form alliances that are based on the common goal of promoting peace in the world and put to an end to the ever increasing war on terrorism. The theories are instrumental in looking into the interest of all nations in the world and come up with strategies to mitigate the superpowers in the world. The superpowers are good, but at the same time, if they rise to destroy their enemy states, it can be difficult to mitigate them.
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