Philipp Studt – författare

Essay from the year 2005 in the subject History of Germany - World War I, Weimar Republic, grade: 70%, Lancaster University, course: Germany 1870-1990-the restless nation, language: English, abstract: The Weimar Republic, Germany's first democracy founded in the wake of the 1918 revolution, lasted only 14 years. The failure gave rise to a regime that started the Second World War and committed unparalleled atrocities. The structure and ultimate breakdown of the Weimar Republic thus rank among the key issues of modern European history. Historians have stressed either the beginning or end of the Republic when trying to explain how the relatively stable and internationally reconciled country that had experienced modest economic recovery disintegrated in such a short time. This essay will investigate two approaches: Firstly, that the Weimar Republic collapsed due to economic pressures being exacerbated by the worldwide depression following the Wall Street Crash. Secondly, that the Weimar Republic was destroyed by a majority of the leadership elites who were anti-Republican, did not support the constitution and thus not only tolerated opposition from the extreme right but actively encouraged it.

Essay from the year 2005 in the subject Politics - Region: USA, grade: 72%, Lancaster University, course: POL 320 American Foreign Policy, language: English, abstract: In the period after the end of World War II, America struggled to find a sustainable, coherent strategy to address the Soviet threat. It is without doubt that both NSC-68 and NSC-162/2 were important documents of their time. It is the aim of this essay to examine the circumstances of their creation, their differences and ultimately, assess which was a more coherent and effective analysis of the early Cold War Period, placing particular emphasis on the perception of international order in the papers. NSC 68 was produced in 1949 by a study group from the Departments of State and Defense under the leadership of Paul Nietze. Its primary concern were the implications of the Soviet possession of the atomic bomb, the uncovering of the spy ring around Fuchs that had infiltrated the Manhattan Project, the recent creation of the German Democratic Republic and the fall of China to Communism. The paper rested on the premise that the decisive struggle in foreign affairs was between the United States and Soviet Russia, and that there could only be one winner. One of the main arguments put forward was that the totalitarian nature of Soviet Russia allowed nothing but an expansionist foreign policy, "e;driven to follow this policy because it cannot (...) tolerate the existence of free societies."e; According to the paper, the Soviets were motivated by "e;a new, fanatic faith, antithetical to our own"e;, seeking to "e;impose its absolute authority over the rest of the world."e; Wolfe makes the point inThe Rise and Fall of the Soviet Threatthat NSC 68 denied that the Russians were capable of acting like other great powers, unable to strike a balance between maximizing their power in some places and minimizing their losses in others, instead expanding everywhere driven by their internal character.3The policy of NSC 68 was, in its own terms, a "e;policy of calculated and gradual coercion"e; in order to "e;check and roll back the Kremlin's drive