Takeaways from

• Consequences of the world wars

• Changes to the balance of power (Germany challenging Britain, arms race)

this week • The complexity of international relations – how many

international organisations

• How world wars affected international politics

• Disruption of economies
• Disruption of empires
• Creation of international organisations (League of Nations and the UN)

• Professionalisation of International Relations as a discipline

• New institutes to study and teach IR
Scott, L. (2020) Chapter 3: International
History of the Twentieth Century

• Questions:
• What were the causes of the Second World War?
• Global inequality
• Ideologies competing for dominance (liberalism, communism and fascism)
• Treaty of Versailles – punished Germany and created resentment

• Why do you think atomic bombs were dropped on Japan?

• What was the effect of the Second World War on global international
relations?
Consequences of WW2
• Political
• Decolonisation – acceleration
• Two power blocks – US and USSR => bipolarity, Cold War
• Non-Aligned Movement
• NATO – pollical and military alliance

• Economic
• Economic crisis
• Marshall Plan (US) and Molotov Plan (USSR)

• Military
• NATO
• Development of nuclear weapons

• Intergovernmental organisations
• European Economic Community – which became European Union
Nuclear Weapons
• Mutually assured destruction – nuclear deterrence
UN Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
• Adopted by the UN General Assembly 1948

• Received widespread support – at least in theory!

Geneva
Conventions
(1949)

• Four treaties, establishing standards

of international law for humanitarian
treatment in war
• Set protocols for humane treatment
of wounded or captured military
personnel, medical personnel and
non-military civilians
Group Task:
• Why were the League of Nations and
the United Nations set up?

• What were the differences?

• Why were the League of Nations and the United Nations set up?

• What were the differences?

Kapur, R. (2020) Chapter 31: Human
Rights. In Baylis, J. Smith, S. and Owens,
P. (eds) The Globalization of World
Politics: An Introduction to International
Relations. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, pp. 498-513
Questions to think about:
• What are human rights?
• Are human rights universal? What does universality
mean?
• What is the most effective model for alleviating
extreme forms of cruelty and suffering inflicted by
states?
• Has the world become a better place with the
establishment of human rights and the international
human rights structure?
• Do they still have the potential to transform the world
and individual lives for the better?