(a) Europe was at war with itself in the first half of the twentieth century with a long cease-fire. Comment. (20 marks) (b) The…

(a) Europe at war with itself, with a long cease-fire

The statement reflects the view that the two world wars were one long European conflict, with the interwar years as a truce, a view some call a second Thirty Years' War. The First World War (1914–18) arose from alliance rivalry, nationalism, imperial competition and militarism. Its settlement did not end the quarrel: the Treaty of Versailles left Germany humiliated, burdened with reparations and war guilt, while the new states of eastern Europe had unsettled borders and minorities. The League of Nations lacked power, and the United States stayed out.

The cease-fire was uneasy. The Ruhr occupation (1923), hyperinflation, the Locarno treaties of 1925 and the Kellogg-Briand Pact brought only temporary calm. The Great Depression (1929) destroyed fragile democracies and brought Fascism and Nazism to power, with revisionist aims against Versailles, and appeasement at Munich (1938) failed to stop them. War returned in 1939.

The continuity view is persuasive in showing unresolved German and territorial questions, but critics note that the interwar years had real attempts at cooperation, and that the Second World War arose from specific choices of Hitler and the Depression, not simply from the first war. The statement is thus broadly true with qualification.

(b) The end of the Cold War and the US as lone superpower

Positive effects: the threat of nuclear confrontation receded and arms control advanced through treaties such as START. Germany reunified, eastern Europe became democratic and joined the European Union and NATO, and market reforms and globalisation expanded trade and growth. The United Nations could act more together, as in the Gulf War (1991), and the US led a liberal order of open trade and institutions.

Negative effects: US unilateralism, as in Iraq (2003), without UN sanction, produced instability and resentment. NATO's eastward expansion strained relations with Russia. Ethnic conflicts that the bipolar order had held down erupted in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Terrorism and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq followed. Globalisation widened inequalities, and Russia's decline and later resurgence, with China's rise, showed that unipolarity was short-lived and the world moved towards multipolarity.

(c) The United Nations in disputes and peace

The United Nations has had a significant but mixed role. Successes include the authorisation of action in Korea (1950), and peacekeeping in Suez (1956), Cyprus, Namibia, Cambodia and Mozambique, support for decolonisation, humanitarian and development work, and the avoidance of a third world war in a nuclear age.

Failures stem from the Security Council's veto and the lack of enforcement forces: the Rwanda genocide (1994) and Srebrenica (1995) went unprevented, Kashmir and Palestine remain unresolved, and the Iraq war (2003) and conflict in Syria showed its limits. So the UN has been significant as a forum, mediator and peacekeeper, but its power depends on the great powers.