Europe in Crisis

Written to enable readers to understand the legacy of European turmoil in the 20th century, Europe in Crisis provides a comprehensive analysis of its two world wars, the follow-on Cold War, and their transformative effects on international relations and security affairs. Written to enable readers to understand the legacy of European turmoil in the twentieth century, Europe in Crisis provides a comprehensive analysis of its two world wars, the follow-on Cold War, and their transformative effects on international relations and security affairs. Today’s reemergence of antagonistic great powers, the global disruptions of their rivalries, and the widening cracks in the post-Second World War world order constitute what has been called a “rupture” in the global system. How government leaders and informed electorates might best navigate that challenge requires knowledge not only of the post-Second World War order but of its origins earlier in the century as well. With this goal in mind, the book examines key issues concerning Europe’s failures to forge a lasting peace over several decades and subsequent struggles to regain stability after the shock of war on gigantic scales. From the battles of Verdun and the Somme in the First World War, to Stalingrad during the Second World War, and the Berlin Wall during the Cold War, and from the July Crisis of 1914 to the Atlantic Charter and the post-Second World War Marshall Plan, this is a history with much to tell us. Ideal for historians, political scientists, and students of international relations, this book takes readers to every part of Europe, and much of the world, tracing the trials and tragedies of an era whose fallout still reverberates in today's newspaper headlines and media commentaries.