The Second World War was a devastating, unprecedented war, which mobilized the whole world in a domino effect: everyone wanting to protect their own interests, keeping their political and military alliances, colonial powers committing their territories and colonies, etc. Not only did this war lead to a monstrous loss of human lives, but Europe, in particular, had to be totally rebuilt. What should we learn from this period of history, so as not to repeat the same mistakes? How can we become aware of the consequences of the Second World War, both good and bad, which still have an impact on our world today?
Not only did democracy and fascism fought against each other in WWII, but major countries also fought for global reorganization. German imperialism sought to control Europe, particularly the Soviet Union, in order to compete economically with the US. Japan’s imperialism seeks to exploit China’s and Southeast Asia’s natural resources. Its empires are being maintained by Britain and France. To maintain economic development, the US requires global collaboration. So it opposes German and Japanese imperialism. Each of the war’s main opponents had important interests to defend and advance, interests that were vital to both the US and the rest of the world. Finally, in many European nations, a section of the ruling class prefers fascism over democracy.
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As a result of these tensions, in order to prevent a third world war, the UN was created by taking over from the former League of Nations, which had unfortunately failed to prevent the Second World War. Nevertheless, can we still say that the UN is effective? Isn’t it, on the contrary, a way for the so-called “northern” or European countries to retain some semblance of a legacy from their past as colonial powers?
The conflict has erupted every few years since 1989, with the Gulf War in 1990, Yugoslavia’s demise in 1992, and the war against Serbia in 1999. A foreign military action in 2011 overthrew Muammar Gaddafi as a consequence of the events of September 11, 2001. A second Libyan civil war has been raging since 2014. The West has become used to waging asymmetrical wars in the name of ‘humanitarianism,’ ignoring the consequences for the affected regions. Many of these actions are taken in an emergency, under media pressure. Emotion rather than rationality triggers them.
Both WWI and WWII began in “border areas.” Border areas are when several powers’ interests collide. And this is true throughout the Middle East, Afghanistan, Central Asia, the Caspian Sea area, Africa, and beyond. The US military superiority, the interdependence of Western economies, political unity, and the existence of nuclear weapons as a deterrent to conflict make war unlikely. Except for nuclear weapons, many foreign affairs specialists recognized these causes within the first decade of the twentieth century. Regardless, war broke out.
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This may seem to be rather surprising and even a little extreme, but it might seem that our question is badly formulated. Indeed, setting aside the treaties signed, how can we declare, to this day, that the Second World War has ended? Its tensions, after being fuelled by the Cold War, still seem to remain on the surface… With Europe, alongside the United States, constantly becoming a “world police force” and dragging other countries into conflicts that are not their own?
Now, how to fix this? The most obvious solution would seem to be to reorganize the UN to make it more egalitarian by giving more visibility and power to non-European countries or countries formerly under the rule of colonial powers. This sounds pretty simple, but an organization can only be “international” when it succeeds in ethically representing the world as a whole.
