THE FEDERAL OPTION

The US Federal State 

If in Teaching Guide 8 we saw how historically different political units tried to get together in order to be more powerful, namely the Composite monarchy, the Confederation or the Customs Union (Zollverein), today we will see what so far is the most effective Union of States: the Federal Model. 

It was born in the United States at the end of the 18th century, and despite the difficulties of its consolidation, the American Federal State has become a model to unite different States into a Powerful Union. Besides the United States the Federal Model has been adopted by some important states as Mexico (since 1824), Argentina (since 1853), Canada (since 1867), Brazil (1889), Australia (since 1891), Germany (since 1949), Republic of India (since 1950), The Russian Federation (since 1991). 

Map of Federal States in the World

In Spain you have a different model: a unitary state but highly decentralized in 17 territories that have a great deal of autonomy. In fact they are called “Autonomies”, a system created by the Spanish Second Republic in 1931 with the weird name of “Integral State”. After 1978 it is called the State of the Autonomies. It is still the rule today despite the fact that some “Autonomies” want to become Independent States: Namely the Bask Provinces and Catalonia. 

 The Federal System is based on a dualism. On one side you have the member states (also called “Provinces” in Canada) and on the other the Supra State that leads the Federation. There is a distribution of Power –usually defined in the Constitution- between the States and the Federal Supra State.  Usually it is the Federal State that has international representation and has assigned the defense of the territory, among other competences. It is a complicated system but it is a good way o creating a strong power preserving the singularity of member states. 

 The US is the most solid Federal Republic, because it has also a Presidential system of Government with a powerful Executive. Not all Federal States are presidential. Germany is a Parliamentary System, as the Executive Power vested on the Chancellor is designated by the Legislative Power. In the US the people elect on one part the Legislative Assemblies (Senate and House of Representatives) and on the other the President. In Germany People elect the members of the Legislative Assembly (Reichstag) and they designate the head of the Executive. There is a clear division of powers in a Presidential System and not so clear in a Parliamentary. 

We will study the most representative Federal model of State, the one of the United States, because despite many difficulties they have become a World Power because they have been able to have a strong federal government, preserving the identities of the member states. It is complicated, so the best way to understand it is to see how the US were formed and how Federalism works there. 

The Star Spangled Banner: the symbol of US integration

13 States and One Nation. 

 We already know from Teaching Guide 4 how the British colonization of North America brought 13 different colonies and how these after the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776 united to fight the British Crown. In order to lead war against their common enemy the 13 different colonies agreed on signing the Articles of Confederation in 1777. 

 Once they won the War in 1783 this document became the first US Constitution of the new 13 independent States, but in fact everyone of them had its own constitution, its own government and its own Legal System. The only common institution they shared was the Continental Congress. A non permanent Assembly where the 13 States had elective representatives.  They met when they had a problem, and if they decided anything it was extremely difficult to implement the decision as they had not a common budget, nor a common executive for enforce what was agreed. 

Congress nevertheless was not a good instrument to face crisis, even a small problem like the one that affected the State of Massachusetts in 1786: the Shay Rebellion. The anarchy resulting from the rebellion of an angry farmer could not be prevented by the Congress, and finally the wealthy citizens of Massachusetts had to pay from their pocket an army to reduce the rebels. That made the Founding Fathers nervous. 

George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and some other Founding Fathers of the new nation considered that the 13 Colonies could not survive a major crisis, especially if the British, the French or the Spanish –in this time much more powerful than the United States- decided  to attack them. So they decided they needed a tighter union. 

 A big debate started with on one side the some that defended that states should remain completely autonomous, and others that considered they should choose the “Federalist option”, which meant creating a super state over the individual states that could be more operative and ensure a greater protection over internal or external dangers.  It was a long and fierce debate as many States did not want to give up their full autonomy. 

Finally adversaries reached a compromise: create a short common constitution, with a strong President elected by the States and a double legislature: one representing the states (Senate) and another one representing the citizens (House of Representatives), and a very strict separation of powers. Everything to ensure that the Federal State could be controlled by the states integrated in it. Finally after the approval of the US Constitution in September 1787, through a complex ratification process, that required the approval of the Bill of Rights (that became the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution), the 13 colonies got into the Union and elected as first President George Washington (1789-1797). 

Diagram of the US Federal Government 

The US Federal State was however still not fully consolidated when the Antifederalist Thomas Jefferson was elected as the third US President in March 1801. But fortunately the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, John Marshall (1801-1835) established the supremacy of the constitution over politics (Judicial Review) and preserved the Federal Union. 

John Marshall, the first US Chief Justice

The other problem was the expansion of the Union from the 13 initial States to the actual 50, mainly through the legal instrument called the Northwest Ordinance of July 1787. A long process that did not go without tensions, including a devastating Civil War (1861-1865) between the Slave and the Free States. Lincoln won the war and the Federal Union was preserved, but at what cost. 

Map of the American Civil War (1861-1865)

Even today there are tensions between the Republicans that want to cede more power for the States and the Democrats who on the contrary are allways willing to reinforce the Federal power. 

The important point is that despite all the problems the US are a World power because they have been able to develop a strong Federal Union compatible with the autonomy of its member states. This is why many states all over the world have chosen the Federal model and the Presidential System.

The Federal option in Europe

 Even some Europeans after World War I, seeing that European Nation-States had lost the control of the World, they considered that importing to the Old Continent the federal option would bring back European States reunited as a leading World Power.  

The Europe of the Versailles Treaty (1919)

Nevertheless bringing the Federal model to Europe has proven to be far more difficult for one reason: European States had been independent for centuries, they do not share the language, they don't have common institutions Remember that after the signing of the Westphalia Treaty  appeared a Europe of independent States, and after the French Revolution and all along the 19th century European Nation-States were extremely keen in keeping intact their sovereignty. Only when Europe was in ruins in 1918, some eminent figures started considering that European States they should get together in order to form a powerful union at the world level to confront the US and the USSR. 

Richard Coudenhove Kalergi

But despite some attempts at integration, like the Pan-European Movement of Count Coudenhove Kalergi (1923) or the Briands proposal for a European Union (1929), rising tensions due to strong nationalism led to another European suicide: World War Two. 

Aristides Briand

It is interesting however that even between 1939 and 1945 each side tried to reinforce some kind of union of States to get stronger. We have to mention the short attempt for a Franco-British Union (June 1940) tried by De Gaulle and Churchill. 

The Franco-British Union of 1940

And then Hitler tried to create a United Europe under the banner of National-Socialism creating a network of Vassal States. 

Hitlerian Europe

As a reaction there was a anti-hitlerian Europe with different initiatives to develop a way for European integration. The most effective one was the customs and economic union created by Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg: the BENELUX (5 September 1944).      

                                                                                  

After 1945 followed some years of disarray while the destroyed European States were obliged to ask Americans for money for surviving. First in total disorder creating a Dollar gap. And finally, thanks to the initiative  Truman's Secretary of State, George Marshall in 1947 was established a coordinated aid that obliged the needed European States to work together if they wanted American money for reconstruction. It was the Marshall Plan. 

George C. Marshall

This period led to the first real attempt of creating an integrated Europe. An essay that aimed at establishing a Federal Europe in the Congress of the Hague (may 1948). At the end it was a failure, but at least it enabled the foundation of the Council of Europe (1949), with its extremely useful Human Rights Court that from Strasbourg protect Europeans citizens  from their respective States. 

  The Hague Congress (1948)

 Nevertheless it is clear that in 1949 it seemed impossible that the different European States could follow the same path in anything and especially not under a strong federal union. The World belonged to the Americans and the Russians.                                                                    

INSTRUCTIONS: First read the text included in your Materials (pages 211 to 252), before proceeding to answer the Concrete Questions, the Concepts and the General Questions. 

Concerning the Basic Chronology (pages 253-254) You should get familiar with all the dates. 

TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION IN CLASS: Would you like a Federal option for Europe? 

Please consider the following aspects: 

1. Understand the essence of the Federal model of State integration. Consider the differences with other models: Empire, Composite monarchies or Confederation.

2. Consider the US Federal approach. Why it appeared. Which were the main difficulties it faced for assuring its consolidation. How work the relationship between the States and the Federal State. 

3. How should European States procede in order to move to a Federal Europe.  

Winston Churchill speaking at The Hague Congress

HISTORIC MODELS OF STATE INTEGRATION

Map of the European Regions

The European Union is today a Community of States. Though the present 27 States members are not as homogeneuous as they aparently appear. On the one hand we have a Europe of regions, and on the other in some of these regions a large part of the population would like to become an independent state, as we see in the following map of European separatisms. 

After the disappearance of the Universal model in the European continent, especially after 1648 we face a Europe of States. The consequence was a constant quarreling for hegemony for almost 300 years. Up to 1945. 

Europe after the Westphalia Treaty (1648)

But on the other hand it is true that States did not appear overnight. They are the result of a long integration process, in which kings incorporated by wars or marriages as much territories to their realms as they could. In order to be more powerful states in European history have always tried to expand territorially. But one thing was to incorporate territories and another to integrate them into a larger political unit. This models of integration are interesting as they were clear precedents of European integration, before Communitarian Europe. 

 We will examine today in Teaching Guide 8 some of them. 

 The oldest model of integration was the Composite monarchy. This occurs when a king becomes simultaneously the monarch of different kingdoms. This does not mean however full unification as in Composite monarchies every member kingdom keep its constitutional status intact. Their own political institutions (Assembly of States) their own law and courts. And also, usually, a customs barrier protection. We will study two actual states that followed the way of the Composite monarchies: Spain and the UK. 

Spain is not a completely unified state because historically it was formed with different kingdoms or territories that were separate political units once. This is why we have the Spain of autonomies, as you can see in the following map.  

Concerning Spain bear in mind that the Catholic Kings (1474-1504) did not integrate Castile and Aragon. The Crown of Castile was a unified state and the Crown of Aragon a Composite monarchy. Isabel and Fernando did not unify their Spanish domains. 

The Catholic Kings: Isabella and Ferdinand

And neither did their grandson Carlos I (V). Castile was a consolidated State and the Crown of Aragon was not. This is why in the Catholic Composite Monarchy that was the result of the joining of Castile and Aragon, Castile ended being dominant. And the common language was Castilian.

Spain at the end of the Middle Ages

We have to wait until the Spanish Succession War (1704-1715) and the defeat of Aragon, Valencia, Aragon and Mallorca to have these kingdoms integrated and unified in Castile (Decretos de Nueva Planta).  As Navarre and the Basqs provinces had not rebelled against Philip V, they kept their own separate constitutional and legal frame. At least until the Carlists wars in the 19th century. Then Navarre (1841) and Alava, Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya (1876) got integrated as well in the Spanish State. 

Map of Spanish provinces in 1833

But the tradition of the Composite monarchy did not disappear and Spain is not today a completely unified state as the independentists movements of Catalonia and the Basq country shows. The composite monarchy model is not fully operative in terms of constructing a strong and unified state. 

Antoher interesting Composite monarchy  is the UK. England integrated Wales in the 16th century and Scotland in the 17th-18th centuries, forming the United Kingdom with the Union Jack. And Ireland from 1800 to 1922.

 But the union is not as solid as it appears. Ireland became in the 20th century an independent State (with the exception of Northern Ireland). And after Brexit Scotland and Northern Ireland are looking for an indepent status as most of its citizens are not happy about Brexit. Again the Composite monarchy system does not guarantee a strong unified State. 

 And yet we still have another formula of state integration in the case of the Swiss Confederation, that started with the Rutli Oath in 1291 and receive full international recognition in the Peace of Westphalia. 

Nevertheless it is not not a powerful way of integration as in the Helvetic Confederation the 26 cantons have more power than the federal government in Bern. Even today. A Confederation is therefore a quite weak form of integration.  

 Integrating politically the European states was an impossible task in the 19th century. But sometimes the political or economic needs forced some states to get together developing ways of partial integration. It was the case of the Metternich System based in the Holy Alliance of 1815, that disappeared completely in 1848.  And the very interesting customs unions of the German States headed by Prussia in the Zolverein, created in 1818 and consolidated by 1834. An important precedent of the present Communitarian Europe.  

INSTRUCTIONS: First read the text included in your Materials (pages 191 to 203), before proceeding to answer the Concrete Questions, the Concepts and the General Questions. 

Concerning the Basic Chronology (pages 205-209) the crucial dates are the following: 

Survival of the Universal Model: 

800, 962, 1804, 1806, 1852-1870, 1871-1918 and 1933-1945. 

Crown of Aragon: 

1137, 1164-1196, 1276, 1283, 1349, 1442, 1474-1504 (Catholic kings), 1517-1556 (Carlos I), 1707-1716 (Nueva Planta Decrees), 1841 (Navarra Ley Paccionada), 1876 (Full integration of Basq Provinces), 18178 (Concierto económico), 1931 (Estado integral), 1978 (Estado de las autonomías).

The United Kingdom: 

1535-1542 (Integration of Wales), 1603, 1707, 1800-1922 (Irish integration in the UK), 1997 and 2014, September 18. 

Swiss Confederation: 

1291, 1648 , 1848. 

Holy Alliance:

1815-1848

Zollverein: 

1818, 1834. 

TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION IN CLASS: Advantages and disadvantages of unified and decentralized states? 

Please consider the following aspects: 

1. Think of the “España de las Autonomías”. Consider the positive aspects of this extreme decentralized system and the inconveniences. For instance looking at how Spain faced the Covid pandemic. Do you find fair that the citizens of the Basks provinces and from Navarre pay less taxes that the rest of Spaniards? Do you think a common education and language should be guaranteed everywhere in the State?

2. Compare with the most centralized state in the world: France. Do you think education, taxing, Social Security, Courts and Law should be the same for every one? Responding to the idea that all citizens should be equal before the law?

3. Consider what is the ethnic background of Ukrainian present State that has led to Putin's invasion. You can inspire yourself in the following map of the languages spoken in Ukraine. 

   

EUROPE IN THE WORLD ORDER AFTER 1945

Xi Jiping and Putin, drinking Vodka (4 February 2022)

 

After having seen how European Nation-States committed suicide in the two World Wars of the first half of the 20th century, in 1945 Europe was generally a continent in ruins, at the mercy of both World Power: the US and the USSR.  European Nation-States that in 1914 were controlling the world in three decades had become ruined countries with no influence in the Planet. Only in this critical situation European States governments understood that the only way of being relevants again was getting together. First they tried the federal way (Teaching guide 9) and the failure of this attempt led to the Communitarian Integration (Teaching guides 10, 11 and 12). But before getting there we should know what has been the position of Europe from 1945 to the present in the World Order, including their position between the disappearance of the USSR after the end of the Cold War and Ukraine’s invasion by Putin in February 2022. This is what we are going to study in Teaching Guide 7. 

Interbellum: After World War I (1918-1939)

The European Nation-States were destroyed in 1918. Economies in the Entente Allies and in the Central Powers sunk. The growth of national indebtedness, both internal and external, of the Entente Allies and the Central Powers rose from 27.883.000.000 USD in 1914 to 224,174,000,000 in the period 1918-1919. US economic output doubled in 4 years and became the leading economy of the world after the war. Before World War 1 European Nation-States had 55% of the World GDP, and in 1918 the US hold 45%. In 1914 the US imported more than exported to Europe. In 1918 it was the other way round. Since 1918 the US became the leading World Power. It would remain so until 1945, and then will share world supremacy with the USSR. Until 1991. 

US President Woodrow Wilson in Versailles Treaty Discussions (1919)

World War I provoked the crisis of the Laissez faire regimes, the Liberal Democracies, where the State had a minimum intervention. The Liberal model was replaced since the October 1917 Soviet Revolution by totalitarianism. Of course in Russia, but also, as a reaction (as the Establishment of European States were afraid that what it had happened in Russia could happen everywhere) by the raise of Mussolini’s Fascist regime in Italy (1922) and the triumph of Nazi regime in Hitler’s Germany (since 1933) then in Italy (from 1922) and Germany (from 1933). As a result of this Europe saw tensions grow between the Communist and the Fascist-Nazi models of Dictatorship.

Europe in 1939

Tensions exploded for the first time in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) in which Stalin supported one side and Hitler and Mussolini the other one, while European and American democracies followed the non intervention principle. The Spanish carnage was only the prologue of a much greater global confrontation: World War 2, the result of Russian imperialism (after the founding of the Kommintern by Lenin in 1919), Mussolini’s colonial expeditions in Libya, Abyssinia and Ethiopia, and finally Hitlerian Lebensraum. 

World War 2 and its Aftermath (1939-1948)

Cartoon on the Hitler-Stalin Alliance (8 September 1939)

World War 2 started because Hitler and Stalin agreed on an alliance with the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of September 8, 1939. Three weeks before the Wehrmacht attack on Poland that launched World War 2. Two weeks before Stalin occupied its part of Poland and ordered Katyn’s massacre from March to May 1940.

 Hitler would have won the war if he had not ordered the invasion of the USSR in June 1941. Hitler made the same mistake as Napoleon invading Russia on 22 June 1941, being stopped at Stalingrad (actual Volvograd) in the fiercest battle of the whole war that lasted 6 months (From August 23, 1942 to February 2, 1943).

 The Russian Army after that would become decisive in the final victory two years and three months after Stalingrad’s battle. Along with the US. This is why in the Teheran Conference of 1943, and then in Yalta (February 1945) and Potsdam (July-August 1945) the World was divided between Russians and Americans. European Governments had nothing to say in the New World Order. 

Yalta (Crimea) Conference 

The key of it was Stalin’s position. After having started the war as Hitler’s ally, Soviet Russia ended the war in the side of allies. This paradox explains why Soviet Dictatorship was accepted by intellectuals in the Western world, and the Communist Parties depending on Moscow spread in Western European democracies. At least until the advent of Euro communism, with leaders as Italian Enrico Berlinguer, as a reaction to USSR intervention during the Dubcek’s Prague’s Spring (January-August 1968).

If you want to understand the fascination that Stalin exerted over European Public Opinion you should not miss the film Mr Jones (2019)  directed by Polish Agnieska Holland. The film is based on the true story of Gareth Jones, an ambitious ambitious young journalist who had gained some renown for his interview with Hitler. Thanks to his connections with the former British Prime Minister Lloyd George (both Welsh)  he is granted official permission in 1933 t to travel to the Soviet Union to interview Stalin and find out more about Russian apparently economic success of the five year development plan. Jones cannot leave Moscow but he escapes, jumps in a train and travels unofficially to Ukraine to discover evidence of the big Famine (Holomodor), the enforced collection of grain, empty villages, with starving people that are reduced to cannibalism. But on his efforts to denounce the real Stalin on his return to Britain, he struggles to get his story taken seriously. The film ends by recording that Jones died while reporting in Inner Mongolia with a guide who was secretly connected the Soviet Secret Service the State Political Directorate (GPU). Replaced in 1934 by the NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs) tha will send Ramon Mercader to assassinate Trosky  in Mexico in 1939, and since 1954 by the KGB (Committee for State Security). Since 1991 it has been replaced by the FSB (Federal Service of Security).

Trosky killed by NKVD Agent Ramon Mercader (Mexico, 21 August 1940)

The Cold War (1948-1989)

 The Marshall Plan (1947) will be the detonator of the Cold War (1948-1989) as Stalin would not accept American aid for developing market economy in Eastern Europe. The result was the iron curtain (Churchill) and the Berlin Wall (1961-1989). But this not only affected Europe. The World would be divided between the countries that followed Capitalist Democracy and Communist Model. There was not an open war but the USSR and the US were struggling in all continents, until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.

 The defeat of the Communist model as a result of the Cold War was possible because Western democracies adapted to the Social Question through the development of the Welfare State Model, that paradoxically started in the US in the 1930’s with the New Deal policy of FDR. What made nevertheless European Welfare State different was the fact that the Tax payers supported the Welfare state, which made the state much stronger in Europe than in the US, where private sector is overwhelmingly bigger that the Public sector. In Europe is the other way round. From 1945 Social Security, and Public Welfare aids were supported all over Western Europe by tax payers. Something that was initially possible thanks to the extraordinary Economic growth of the Thirty Glorious years. 

It is interesting that paradoxically in the traditionally Communist’s regimes have also joined the market Economy. Russian has become since 1991 a system dominated by powerful oligarchs that now are sanctioned after Ukraine’s invasion. And China after Den Xiaoping (1978-1992) has entered in the Era of Market Socialism that has transformed China in a leading World Power in the 21st century. A very powerful Dictatorial state that surprisingly is playing full the Market rules. An amazing contradiction. 

Den Xiao Ping: the heroe of Modern China

The “socialization” of Western capitalism and the “capitalization” of Eastern Communism has led in  very efficient way to the globalization of the World. The consequence of globalization from the International Relations perspective is may be the beginning of a global constitutional history starting with the League of Nations (1920-1946) and following with the United Nations (since 1945). Until February 2022 Treaties and International Organizations (WTO, GATT, IMF, World Bank), that seek to rule the world through negotiation and governance instead of through authority and military intervention. 

But now thing are in a way back to 1945 and the International Policy of blocks, as Russia and China are heading a military alternative to NATO. A military Alliance created in 1949 when Europeans asked for US protection after the start of Cold War and the threat of a Russian invasion.  

The Post Cold War World (1991-2022)

But the disappearance of the Iron Curtain and the fall of the Communists regimes did not led to a unique American leadership and today we are facing a multipolar world where China, India and the Russian federation are challenging US supremacy. 

The problem is that the 1975 Oil crisis stopped the expansionist cycle and European states could afford less and less the Welfare State System. Which brought the anti-regulation movement of the 1980’s spearheaded by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, and bringing back Laissez faire liberalism.                                     

With dreadful consequences in terms of the rising of inequalities. Capitalism after the 1980’s neoliberal way has produced a substantial rising of economic and social inequalities, that is leading to a new oligarchic model of the State controlled by the Establishment, despite the interesting theories of  the Legal and Political American thinker John Rawls who developed a very peculiar way of making compatible the Laissez faire principle and the protection of equality. Have you heard about the Universal income? He was the guy who brought the idea into our contemporary world. 

John Rawls (1921-2002)

After the collapsing of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the only two real communist countries are Cuba and North Korea. But Russia and China are trying to impose the dictatorial model to the globalized world, as an alternative to the Western Democratic System. The Ukraine’s invasion by Putin troops has made it clear, especially after the sudden alliance between Xi Jiping and Putin (4 February 2022). 

Democracy is in crisis, with the rise of populisms, even in the US with the Trump Administration that brought the shameful episode of the storming of the United States Capitol by the mob of Trump supporters on January 6, 2021. 

Washington D.C. 6 of January 2021

Challenges for Europe in the 21st Century

But in this Global model where is Europe? The European Union is from this perspective doing better as the Rule of Law is one of the pillars of European integration, along with a respect of the Welfare State principle. But with the Ukraine’s invasion Europe has discovered that they cannot entirely count on the US military protection and that European States have to reinforce their military policy independently from NATO. Economical Union is not enough and if we Europeans want to maintain our democracies we will have to fight for them 

Versailles's Summit on Ukraine's War (10-11 March 2022)

The problem is how Europe is facing the 21st century as a huge market (first GDP in the world) but with no leadership, as lacking of a strong Executive.  The problem for Europe is that our old Nation States are doing very poorly at the global level. We are irrelevant compared to China, Russia, India or even the Petro Monarchies as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, or the United Arab Emirates. And most of this countries –with may be with the exception of India- are not real democracies. 

Of course we are not used to it because the world had been in peace from 1991 to 2022. But things will never be the same, independently of the issue of the Ukraine’s war. 

The most important idea you have to retain of Teaching Guide 7 is how after 1945 Europe was left far behind World leadership, despite our considerable economic expansion Nevertheless prosperity has not helped European nation states to join the league of the leading protagonists of the World contemporary history.  But Ukraine’s War may change this situation after almost 8 decades. 

The main problem that Europe is facing to get back as a protagonist in World historya is that we have not found an effective way of getting together to defend our interests and our political, legal, social and economical model. Why? This is what we are going to find out in the next Teaching Guides.     

INSTRUCTIONS: First read the text included in your Materials (pages 163 to 181), before proceeding to answer the Concrete Questions, the Concepts and the General Questions. 

Concerning the Basic Chronology (pages 182-186) the crucial dates are the following: 

1946 (Appearance of the Italian Republic), 

1947 (Marshall Plan)

1948, June (beginning of the Berlin Blockade), 

1949 (Creation of NATO, Appearance of German Federal Republic and Mao’s triumph in China), 

1953 (Death of Stalin), 

1958 (DE Gaulle’s in power), 

1959 (Castro’s victory in Cuba), 

1961 (beginning of the Berlin Wall), 

1963 (JFK’s assassination), 

1964 (beginning of the Vietnam War), 

1966 (beginning of China’s Cultural Revolution), 

1968 January-August (Prague Spring), 

1973 (military coup in Chile against Allende), 

1974 (Nixon’s resignation Watergate scandal), 

1975 (end of Vietnam War and death of Franco), 

1976 (Death of Mao), 

1978 (Den Xiao Ping in Power and beginning of Market Socialism in China), 

1979 (Founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran), 

1985 (Gorbatchev in power in the USSR), 

1989, November 9 (Fall of the Berlin Wall), 

1990 (German reunification), 

1991 (Extinction of the USSR), 

2001, September 11 (Islamic Terrorism hits the US), 

2004, March 11 (Terrorist attack in Madrid), 

2005 (Angela Merkel becomes German chancellor), 

2008 (Obama becomes US President), 

2014 (Juan Carlos I resigns on his son Philip VI as king of Spain, and Scottish referendum of independence), 

2015 (Bataclan terrorist attack in Paris), 

2016 (Brexit referendum and Donald Trump election), 

2017 October 1st (Catalan independence illegal referendum), 

2020, January 31 (The UK leaves the EU).

2020, March (Expansion of COVID 19’s Pandemic all over the world), 

2021 (January 6: assault on US Capitol by Trump supporters; 

January 20: Joe Biden takes office as the 46 US President

8 December: Olaf Scholz German Chancelor. 

 And of course you have to add:  

1999, the 31st December when Putin gets to Power after Boris Yeltsin resignation,

2022, the 24th of January, date of the beginning of the Ukraine’s invasion.   

TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION IN CLASS: Why Europeans despite being developed economies we do not have a decisive influence in today’s world? 

Please consider the following aspects: 

1. Remember the History of Europe in 1919-1939, and from 1945. Especially during the Cold War period. Try to think of the most influential European leaders during this period. 

2. Think why a country like the Russian Federation where the average population is facing serious economic problems is far more influential than European nation-States today. 

3. Do the US, China, Russia, India have a powerful national narrative? If so explain why and which one. And compare with the European reality. 

4. Is the Welfare State a problem in terms of Economic growth? Read the pages about John Rawls theory (176) before answering. Is social justice (reducing inequalities) a problem for becoming a powerful country worldwide? Think about Boris Johnson following statement: "The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed, my friends." (24 March 2021)

5. Is democracy a problem for having a powerful State? Think of how Russia has been trying to destabilize Western democracies, taking advantage of local domestic conflicts (as US Presidential Elections, Catalan Conflict, Brexit).  And also how a dictatorial regime as China is becoming a leading power. Also consider the case of Petro Monarchies. 

6. Does the money really makes the world go round? Is it material comfort all that matters. 

   

WILL EUROPE PERISH?

 

When we are entering Teaching Guide 6 ("The Suicide of Europe") we are facing the invasion of Ukraine ordered by Vladimir Putin on Thursday 24 of February 2022, a fact that has brought back war to Europe. Something that has been unknown to Europeans since 1945. It looks like a conflict between two states, but the unanimous reaction of the European States against Putin’s aggression appears more like a wider conflict between the West and the East. Between liberal democracies and democratic dictatorships called “democraturs”, like the one that exists in Russia, where Vladimir Putin has been in power since 2000. In any case an illiberal democracy where power has no limits, information is controlled by the states and dissidents are put in jail or directly poisoned. 

Aleksandr Litvinenko, a dissident writter in his death bed (2006)

After being poisoned with polonium by order of Putin

                                                                                             The Pussy Riot, a punk-rock  Group imprisoned in 2021

Alexei Navalny, arrested in 2018

 Of course we western Europeans are horrified with a situation of war because we have not been involved in one since 1945. And now we remember with panic the tragic holocausts of the two World Wars of the first half of the 20th century that destroyed Europe and let us at the mercy of Stalin troops that had occupied Eastern Europe. This is why we asked the United States to give us military assistance in case of Russian invasion and NATO was created the 4 of April 1949. 

In a globalized world and a Europe that sticks together because of economic interest many we were wondering if NATO still made any sense. But suddenly since the 24 of February we have realized that it does. In fact Putin has used the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO as a pretext to start his war. 

And suddenly we Europeans have realized that he was in fact dominating us through gas and oil production, and through the money of new Russian oligarchs. This is why he thought that we will not react because in principle we just cared about our economy and our material comfort. But surprisingly we have reacted with strong economic sanctions that will affect as well severely our economies. Because we have realized that if Putin wins our whole liberal democratic way of life would be in danger. In less than two weeks our priorities have changed. Especially when we see than Ukrainians are willing to defend their country to the last soldier. That national narrative that Putin thought was inexistent is jeopardizing a war that he thought is was going to be quick because most of Ukrainian population would welcome Russian soldiers as their saviors from a corrupt and “nazi” regime. 

Unfortunately for him the Ukrainian President Volodímir Zelenski is a Jew, has studied law, speaks fluent Russian and is a great communicator as he has worked like a comedian from 1997 to 2018. Before entering politics and becoming Ukraine’s Prime Minister 20 of Mai 2019. Instead of fleeing he is resisting and has suddenly become a National hero for more than 90% of Ukrainians. 

You know when you start a war, but never when you can put an end to it. And this uncertainty is bringing us back to some of the darkest moments of our history. It is therefore time to reopen our history books and understand how was it possible that in thirty years, from 1914 to 1945, the mighty European Nation-States collapsed and disappeared from the World Front Stage? How could the insignificant States of the 15th century that in four centuries got to control the world, returned to insignificancy in such a short period. This is what we are going to analyze today from a very concrete perspective: to what extent this made clear the insufficiencies of the Nation-State model. 

We will start with the apocalyptic conflict that was World War I. May be to this day the worst war in Human history, mainly because it was the first “total war”, meaning that every nation-state involved dedicated all resources, material and human, to exterminate the adversary. In World War I all Europeans were more than happy to go to a war towards a hatred enemy thinking that it was going to be a very short war in the name of nationalism. But War lasted 4 and half long years with millions of dead and more of crippled. Al sustained by a deeply rooted xenophobic narrative nationally promoted that led in France, for instance, to the assassination of the Socialist leader Jean Jaurès (1859-31 July 1914) simply because he was a pacifist. 

 Today pacifism has been the rule, and everybody is afraid of war with the exception of ex colonel of the KGB Vladimir Putin, that spend 20% of the budget of the Russian economy in weapons. Bear in mind that for one of the largest countries in the World with 146 million inhabitants, Russian economy is smaller than German Economy (4.036 billions v. 4.597 billions) with only 80 million. But after Ukraine’s Invasion Europeans think that everything has to be done to prevent Putin of imposing his iron fist in the Old Continent. 

As we are not used to the war situation we should remember that the suicide of the Great War of 1914-1918 led to the abrupt end of Liberalism and the return of authoritarian regimes, starting with Bolshevik Russia, and continuing with Fascist Italy or Nazi Germany. Dreadful dictatorships brought by the aftermaths of the massive and absurd massacre that led the world to war again in 1939, leaving Europe in ruins. 

The "Brandenburg Tor" in May 1945                                                   

 And you would not understand the Russian Revolution, the Dictatorships of Mussolini and Hitler or the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) if you do not grasp the social consequences of the expansion of big capitalism and the rising of “the Social question”. This is why a large part of the text of Teaching Guide 6 (pages 127-139) are dedicated  to this crucial aspect, including the “democratic solution” to the problem unexpectedly  invented by US President F.D. Roosevelt and the New Deal.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

New Deal would lead to the Welfare State Model, consolidated in the UK in 1942 by William Beveridge.  Something especially important considering the actual resurgence of inequalities worldwide, as a result of the Neoliberal policies started by the Western States in the 1980’s decade. In our today’s topic for discussion we will analyze if we are assisting today to a resurgence of the social question because of the overwhelming growing of inequality all over the Planet. 

William Beveridge: the Founder of Social Security             

  Please read carefully the chain of events triggered by the Russian revolution, that finally led to World War 2 (1939-1945) and to the Cold War (1948-1989). Especially considering that with Ukraine’s invasion on Thursday 24 of February 2022 by Russian troops looks like we are facing a resurgence of a New Cold war in which Western countries are increasingly facing Russia where Vladimir Putin is considering a rebuilt of the Soviet Union dissolved by the Belavezha Accords on the 8 December 1991. The moment in which Ukraine became an independent State. 

 Are we going towards World War Three? That would depend a lot on the attitude of China. Of course Putin had tried to get President Xi Jiping on his side before Ukraine’s Invasion. But as the Putin’s Blitzkrieg did not work, China is extremely cautious that the conflict would create a major economic crisis that would bring huge instability to his dictatorial regime, because so far Chinese society has accepted dictatorship because it has brought great prosperity. An economical crisis would bring social unrest and would jeopardize the political regime. This is why China is trying very badly to find a way to end this war. Wait and see

The most important idea you have to retain of Teaching Guide 6 is how the Nation-State model brought to the destruction of Europe in only three decades.

 INSTRUCTIONS: First read the text included in your Materials (pages 124 to 161), before proceeding to answer the Concrete Questions, the Concepts and the General Questions. 

Concerning the Basic Chronology (pages 154-155) all 21 dates included are crucial.  

TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION IN CLASS: Are we in the eve of Third World War? 

Please consider the following aspects: 

1. Think about what were the causes of the Two European World Wars of the first half of the 20th century.

2. Is Putin imitating the Lebensraum policy of Hitler? Think of the parallelisms of the Austrian Anschluss, The Sudeten Crisis and the Munich Conference of 1938 with the actual policy of Putin in Belarus, Crimea, Donbass and Lugansk and what has been so far the attitude of Western Democracies.  

3. Is it possible to rebuild a Soviet Union in the 21st century? Give arguments in both directions. 

4. Are economic interests in a globalized world so determinant that would make unthinkable a Major War at the World level?

5. Think about the history of NATO and how it has been expanding since 1991. 

6. Review the Cuban Missiles Crisis of 1962 and see if you could establish a parallelism with the Eastern expansion of NATO since 1991.  

7. Think about China’s role in this crisis.

8. Think about the attitude of the US in this crisis. Do you think the approach to the Venezuelan dictatorship of Maduro by the Biden’s Administration makes sense? Is it bearable for Democrats?