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The Unfinished Peace after World War I: America, Britain and the Stabilisation of Europe, 1919-1932

The Unfinished Peace after World War I: America, Britain and the Stabilisation of Europe, 1919-1932

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Patrick O. Cohrs
Cambridge University Press, 4/6/2006
EAN 9780521853538, ISBN10: 0521853532

Hardcover, 708 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 4.3 cm
Language: English

This is a highly original and revisionist analysis of British and American efforts to forge a stable Euro-Atlantic peace order between 1919 and the rise of Hitler. Patrick Cohrs argues that this order was not founded at Versailles but rather through the first 'real' peace settlements after World War I - the London reparations settlement of 1924 and the Locarno security pact of 1925. Crucially, both fostered Germany's integration into a fledgling transatlantic peace system, thus laying the only realistic foundations for European stability. What proved decisive was that key decision-makers drew lessons from the 'Great War' and Versailles' shortcomings. Yet Cohrs also re-appraises why they could not sustain the new order, master its gravest crisis - the Great Depression - and prevent Nazism's onslaught. Despite this ultimate failure, he concludes that the 'unfinished peace' of the 1920s prefigured the terms on which a more durable peace could be founded after 1945.

Prologue
the truncated peace of Versailles and its consequences, 1919–23
1. The wider challenges
the legacy of the 'Great War' and the era of imperialism
2. Wilson, Lloyd George and the quest for a 'peace to end all wars'
3. The ill-founded peace settlement of 1919
4. The escalation of Europe's post-Versailles crisis, 1920–23
Part I. The Anglo-American Stabilisation of Europe, 1923–4
5. Towards a progressive transformation of European politics
the reorientation of American stabilisation policy, 1921–3
6. Towards transatlantic co-operation and a new European order
the reorientation of British stabilisation policy, 1922–4
7. The turning point - the Anglo-American intervention in the Ruhr crisis
8. From antagonism to accommodation
the reorientation of French and German postwar policies, 1923–4
9. The two paths to the London conference
the Dawes process and the recasting of European international politics
10. The first 'real' peace settlement after World War 1
the London agreement of 1924 and the consequences of the 'economic peace'
Part II. Europe's Nascent Pax Anglo-Americana, 1924–5
11. The dawning of a progressive Pax Americana in Europe?
12. Towards the Locarno pact - Britain's quest for a new European concert, 1924–5
13. Regression? US policy and the 'political insurance' of Europe's 'economic peace'
14. Beyond irreconcilable differences? German and French approaches to Locarno
15. The path to Locarno - and its transatlantic dimension
16. The second 'real' peace settlement after World War I
the Locarno conference and the emergence of a new concert of Europe
Part III. The Unfinished Transatlantic Peace Order
the system of London and Locarno, 1926–9
17. Sustaining peaceful change and stability - the challenges of the latter 1920s
18. Progressive visions and limited commitments
American stabilisation efforts in the era of London and Locarno
19. 'Reciprocity'? Britain as 'honest broker' in the Locarno system
20. The new European concert - and its limits
21. The quest for a 'final postwar agreement' at Thoiry
22. Towards a peaceful change of Polish-German relations?
23. Achievements and constraints - the European security system of the latter 1920s
24. No 'new world order' - the limits of the Kellogg-Briand Pact
25. Towards the young process - the final bid to fortify the system of London and Locarno
26. The last 'grand bargain' after World War I - the Hague Settlement of 1929
Epilogue
Conclusion.

'This is a highly original and thought-provoking book. Patrick Cohrs, adopting a systemic approach to his subject, argues that the Anglo-American agreements of 1923-5 laid the foundations for a stable peace in Europe and inaugurated an American-dominated Euro-Atlantic system that lasted until it was disrupted by the unprecedented world depression. ... Cohrs' challenging thesis forces one to reconsider the process of European stabilisation in the 1920s, and to reassess the nature of the American contribution to its limited success.' Zara Steiner, English Historical Review