1 Political Science Notes The Settlement of 1945 Ikenberry Chapter 6 The Settlement of 1945 Strategy Of Settlement A Peace treaties were not concluded with the major axis powers Japan and Germany at the end of WWII a The charter of the United Nations unlike the Covenant of the League of Nations was not attached to the peace settlement b WWII actually culminated in two major settlements i One between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies it took the form of the Cold War bipolarity ii The other was among the Western industrial countries and Japan which resulted in a dense set of new security economic and political institutions almost all involving the United States 1 Extensive use of multilateral institutions to organize postwar relations a Economic stabilization trade finance and monetary relations b layer cake regional global multilateral and bilateral institutions c Incentives to move towards a constitutional order i USA power heightened the incentives that the European governments had to make agreements that would establish restraints and commitments on the exercise of American Power ii Shared democratic institutions made commitment plausible 1 Democracy was both an end and a means 2 Western leaders justified their unprecedented institutional commitments as necessary for the protection of common democratic values a Credible and effective towards peace because made between democracies d USA wanted an open multilateral economic order used leverage after WWII to get it e European Weakness more than its outright resistance limited American postwar liberal multilateral goals 2 i Reconstruction became the critical component of securing a wider open multilateral order 2 NATO keep the Russian s out the Germans down and the Americans in 3 The open character of American Hegemony the extensive reciprocity between the United States and its partners the absence of hegemonic coercion and the binding institutional relations all provided elements of reassurance and legitimacy despite asymmetries of power iii The two settlements were interrelated 1 Cold war reinforced cohesion among the advanced industrial democracies and the breakdown of relations with the Soviet Union beginning in 1947 2 Critical reshaping of the character and extent of American security commitment to Europe a Marshall Plan i Fears of Communism ii European openness was good for American economy iv Strategy of the Settlement 1 The United States came out of WWII extremely unexpectedly powerful 2 Had an advantage for agenda setting a All parties understood the amount of economic and political power that the United States had i The US had 50 percent of the world s wealth and only 6 3 percent of the world s population b 1941 Lend lease agreement the most explicit instance of the use of wartime assistance to extract concessions over postwar European policies i US support to the allies during the war 3 Determined that WWII started because WWI did not end with complete surrender a Allies had decided neither Germany nor Japan would be given the opportunity to become aggressive v Conditions that defined the problems of order after the war 1 New and huge power asymmetries 2 Completely defeated enemy 3 Old international order in ruins 4 Uncertain future 3 vi United States in a unprecedented position to shape world politics 1 Fears of domination and abandonment among weaker states 2 Charter as an open and reluctant hegemonic power and the proposed postwar institutions facilitate agreement on a settlement organized around binding institutions B Two Post War Settlements a One was a reaction to deteriorating relations with the Soviet Union and it culminated in the containment order i Settlement based on the balance of power nuclear deterrence and political and ideological competition ii Truman doctrine 1947 speech announcing aid to Greece and Turkey founding moment of the containment order 1 Rallied American peoples to a new great struggle this one against the perils of world domination by Soviet communism b The other was a reaction to the economic rivalry and political turmoil of the 1930 s and the resulting world war It culminated in a wide range of new institutions and relations among the Western industrial democracies and Japan i This settlement was built around economic openness political reciprocity and multilateral management of an American led liberal political order ii The Western settlement was built on varied and sophisticated ideas about American Security interests the causes of war and depression an the proper and desirable foundations of postwar political order 1 The Atlantic Charter 2 Open nondiscriminatory world economic system a Peace an security were impossible in a world of closed and exclusive economic regions b Atlantic Charter lock the European democracies into an open and managed postwar order i Stabilizing and interdependent world C Competing American Visions of Postwar Order a Global Governance i Supported creation of governing institutions that would be supranational and universal 1 International control of atomic weapons and new global security institutions 2 Industrial modernism and rising economic interdependence 3 Peace and prosperity could only be ensured by the creation of a global political order where governments shared sovereignty with some sort of new world state 4 b c d e f 4 Peripheral to actual politics and planning of the postwar settlement although the founding of the United Nations was seen by some as a partial achievement towards global governance Creation of an open trade system i Department of State and its secretary Cordell Hull ii Open trading system was crucial to American economic and security interests and was also fundamental to the maintenance of peace iii This open economy would serve the interests of America the most help the hegemon iv Also this open system was seen as an essential element of a stable world political order it would discourage ruinous economic competition and protectionism that was a source of depression and war v It would also lead to an international world order in which American hands on management would be modest The system would in effect govern itself Creating a political order among the democracies of the North Atlantic region i Community or union between the United States Britain and the wider Atlantic world Anglo American commity closer trans Atlantic ties ii Alliance between constitutional countries iii Shared democratic values