The EU also wants to have a defence agreement with Australia. Perhaps they don't know how pathetic Australia is on its own defence.

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Dear Binoy (the author),

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You wrote :

« As the world was readying for the Second World War, the insightful humane Austrian author Stefan Zweig made the following glum observation: “Openly and flagrantly, certain countries express their will to expand and make preparations for war.” »
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Zweig was a pacifist and a member of a wealthy Austrian-Jewish family.

With the rise of Nazism, he moved to London in 1934, taking British citizenship. In 1942, he and his second wife, Lotte, were found dead, following an apparent double suicide.

In the 1930s, France and the United Kingdom practiced a policy of appeasement toward Nazi Germany. They tolerated German territorial aggression rather than confronting it with force, hoping that Hitler’s ambitions would settle down peacefully.

In 1938, Hitler annexed Austria and threatened to drag Europe into war if the Sudetenland, a majority-German region in Czechoslovakia, was not also awarded to Germany.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain hoped Hitler would be satisfied after acquiring the Sudetenland. British and French leaders signed the Munich Agreement and accepted Hitler’s demands in exchange for a promise that Germany would make no further demands.

Chamberlain returned to London with an agreement signed by Hitler. The pact affirmed “the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.” Chamberlain believed he held the means to “peace for our time.”

That was not the case. Fighting erupted the following year, in 1939, when Hitler annexed Poland.

In the decades since World War II, appeasement has been condemned as a disastrous foreign policy failure. Leaders have used and abused the term to justify (or deride) foreign intervention.

When British and French leaders signed the Munich Agreement, they faced intense domestic pressure to avoid war, and Chamberlain and others misjudged the massive scale of Hitler’s ambitions.

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Obama’s last-minute cancellation in 2014 of the planned allied military air strike against the Assad regime in Syria after its attack on the citizens of the capital, Damascus, with chemical weapons, also had catastrophic consequences, not only for millions of Syrians but for the military credibility of the US and its allies as well.

It can only embolden potential warmonger political leaders like Putin, Xi, and Kim Jong Un.

The two devastating world wars both originated in Europe, but they were followed by 80 years of peace. The 1989 Tiananmen revolt, followed by the fall of the Berlin Wall that resulted in the disintegration of the Soviet Union, seemed to be a sign of the times.

Europe progressively disarmed and became complacent. The European Union was formed and has a current membership of 27 countries.

Putin became prime minister of Russia in 1999 and president in 2012 and has remained in power ever since.

In 2014 Putin’s Russia annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea.

That was the year he declared during a televised awards ceremony for geography students :

« Russia's border doesn't end anywhere. »

Then, in 2022, Putin’s Russia annexed four Ukrainian oblasts—Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia.

And Putin’s Russia is now amassing troops near its border with Finland, which recently became a member of NATO. Any attack on which automatically triggers the mutual defence pact that engages all the NATO member countries.

Hence the reason why, today, as you indicate, Stefan Zweig observed glumly, no doubt on some previous occasion, that : “Openly and flagrantly, certain countries express their will to ... make preparations for war.”

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Hi Banjo,

Your orthodox account of what transpired in Europe in the lead up to WWII is today accepted as generally true. By historical accounts Chamberlain and others were deceived by Hitler, and the Munich Agreement was ineffective. All the weakness did was to encourage the aggressor to go to war if necessary, believing he was in a stronger position than the "enemy".

If you look at the political and military conditions that existed in Europe prior to WWI, they were completely different to the conditions 25 years later. In 1914 there existed strong alliances, on the one side was the Triple Entente consisting of Britain, France, and Russia, militarily very powerful, on the other side the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, also militarily very strong. You might believe having such powerful forces opposing each other, they would cancel one another out, and war would be avoided. Unfortunately it was because of these powerful alliances that a catastrophic war ensued.

What do you suggest be done today to avoid another world war?

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Dear Paul,

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You ask :

« What do you suggest be done today to avoid another world war? »
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Foster closer relations, partnerships, and cooperation among nations of like minds and build on that, particularly in the essential domains of defence, trade, environment, innovation, education, and culture.

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Hi Banjo,

I would like to be up beat about the future prospects for world peace, but unfortunately I don't see a lot of good happening right now to warrant such positivity.

You said; "Foster closer relations, partnerships, and cooperation among nations of like minds and build on that, particularly in the essential domains of defence, trade, environment, innovation, education, and culture."

Is that not what the Russians, Chinese and North Koreans are doing at the moment. If it is I'm rather pessimistic as to where that will lead. "Our side" is doing the same thing. One of the problems I see is the reference to "like minds", what about those that are not as like minded as us? We need to look at things from all perspectives, not just our own. We need to build bridges, we need to find common ground, we need to compromise. Belligerent saber rattling is not the answer.

Since WWII, I believe there has been no real effort from any of the dominant nations to promote peace in the world, that is evidenced by the 35 million who have perished in wars since 1945. Domination, control and exploitation has been the key objectives of the super powers, and war has been the main consequence of those objectives.

If the 'Big Guy in the Sky' suddenly appeared on earth and said; "I'll grant you little people one wish, anything you like, what is it?" I would hope that wish would be for the relief of all human suffering! But, like the Big Guy in the Sky, its pie in the sky to hope for such a thing to happen in our lifetime.