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Strategic Frivolity
Strategic frivolity in foreign policy defines shortsighted political decisions that are not connected to the long-term interests of the country making those decisions. Henry Kissinger used the term in his book World Order (book), ''World Order'' (2014) while describing the policies that caused the First World War and remarked that "history punishes strategic frivolity sooner or later". Examples Kissinger had introduced the notion of frivolity in his book Diplomacy (Kissinger book), ''Diplomacy'' (1994), describing the actions of the statesmen in the second half of the 19th century that eventually led to the World War I, First World War. In particular, he singled out the actions of Napoleon III, who considered the foreign policy of France as "an instrument he uses to secure his rule in France", per the words of Baron Hübner. "Frivolity is a costly indulgence of a statesman", and Napoleon quickly got trapped in the crises he manufactured without thinking through the long-term conse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foreign Policy
Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, including defense and security, economic benefits, and humanitarian assistance. The formulation of foreign policy is influenced by various factors such as domestic considerations, the behavior of other states, and geopolitical strategies. Historically, the practice of foreign policy has evolved from managing short-term crises to addressing long-term international relations, with diplomatic corps playing a crucial role in its development. The objectives of foreign policy are diverse and interconnected, contributing to a comprehensive approach for each state. Defense and security are often primary goals, with states forming military alliances and employing soft power to combat threats. Economic interests, including trade agreements and foreign aid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cardinal Richelieu
Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu (9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), commonly known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic prelate and statesman who had an outsized influence in civil and religious affairs. He became known as the Red Eminence (), a term derived from the style of Eminence (style), Eminence applied to Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinals and their customary red robes. Consecrated a bishop in 1607, Richelieu was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (France), Foreign Secretary in 1616. He continued to rise through the hierarchy of both the Catholic Church and the French government, becoming a Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinal in 1622 and Chief minister of France, chief minister to King Louis XIII, Louis XIII of France in 1624. He retained that office until his death in 1642, when he was succeeded by Cardinal Cardinal Mazarin, Jules Mazarin, whose career the cardinal had fostered. Richelieu became enga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation. From Tunisia, the protests initially spread to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. Rulers were deposed (Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt all in 2011, and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen in 2012) and major uprisings and social violence occurred, including riots, civil wars, or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. Minor protests took place in Djibouti, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the Western Sahara. A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is ''Ash-shab yurid isqat an-nizam, ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated population of over 449million as of 2024. The EU is often described as a ''sui generis'' political entity combining characteristics of both a federation and a confederation. Containing 5.5% of the world population in 2023, EU member states generated a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of around €17.935 trillion in 2024, accounting for approximately one sixth of global economic output. Its cornerstone, the European Union Customs Union, Customs Union, paved the way to establishing European Single Market, an internal single market based on standardised European Union law, legal framework and legislation that applies in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where the states ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Thirty Years' War
"Second Thirty Years' War" is a periodization scheme sometimes used to encompass the wars in Europe from 1914 to 1945. Just as the Thirty Years' War of 1618 to 1648 was not a single war but a series of conflicts in varied times and locations, later organized and named by historians into a single period, the Second Thirty Years' War has been seen as a " European Civil War", fought over the problem of Germany and exacerbated by the new ideologies of fascism, Nazism and communism that came into power after World War I. The thesis of the Second Thirty Years' War is that World War I naturally led to World War II; in this framework, the latter is the inevitable result of the former, and thus they can be seen as a single conflict. Historians have criticized this thesis on the grounds that it excuses the actions of fascist and Nazi historical actors. Origins The concept of a "Second Thirty Years' War" originated in 1946 with the former head of French government Charles de Gaulle in his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
July Crisis
The July Crisis was a series of interrelated diplomatic and military escalations among the Great power, major powers of Europe in mid-1914, Causes of World War I, which led to the outbreak of World War I. It began on 28 June 1914 when the Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. A complex web of alliances, coupled with the miscalculations of numerous political and military leaders (who either regarded war as in their best interests, or felt that a general war would not occur), resulted in an outbreak of hostilities amongst most of the major European states by early August 1914. Following the murder, Austria-Hungary sought to inflict a military blow on Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, to demonstrate its own strength and to dampen Serbian support for Yugoslavism, Yugoslav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alsace–Lorraine
Alsace–Lorraine (German language, German: ''Elsaß–Lothringen''), officially the Imperial Territory of Alsace–Lorraine (), was a territory of the German Empire, located in modern-day France. It was established in 1871 by the German Empire after it had occupied the region during the Franco-Prussian War. The region was officially ceded to the German Empire in the Treaty of Frankfurt (1871), Treaty of Frankfurt. French Third Republic, French resentment about the loss of the territory was one of the contributing factors to World War I. Alsace–Lorraine was formally ceded back to France in 1920 as part of the Treaty of Versailles following Germany's defeat in the war, but already annexed in practice at the war's end in 1918. Geographically, Alsace–Lorraine encompassed most of Alsace and the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments of France, department of Lorraine. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River, east of the Vosges Mountains; t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bosnian Crisis
The Bosnian Crisis, also known as the Annexation Crisis (, ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Aneksiona kriza, Анексиона криза) or the First Balkan Crisis, erupted on 5 October 1908 when Austria-Hungary announced the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, territories formerly within the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire but Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina, under Austro-Hungarian administration since 1878. This unilateral actiontimed to coincide with Bulgarian Declaration of Independence, Bulgaria's declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire on 5 Octobersparked protestations from all the Great Powers and Austria-Hungary's Balkan neighbors, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia and Principality of Montenegro, Montenegro. In April 1909, the Treaty of Berlin (1878), Treaty of Berlin was amended to reflect the ''fait accompli'' and bring the crisis to an end. Although the crisis ended with what appeared to be a total Austro-Hungarian diplomatic victory, it permanently damaged ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Moroccan Crisis
The Agadir Crisis, Agadir Incident, or Second Moroccan Crisis, was a brief crisis sparked by the deployment of a substantial force of French troops in the interior of Morocco in July 1911 and the deployment of the German gunboat to Agadir, a Moroccan Atlantic port. Germany did not object to France's expansion but demanded "territorial compensation" for itself. Berlin threatened warfare, sent a gunboat and stirred up German nationalists. Negotiations between Berlin and Paris resolved the crisis on 4 November 1911: France took over Morocco as a protectorate in exchange for territorial concessions to German Cameroon from the French Congo. In Britain, David Lloyd George, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, made a dramatic " Mansion House" speech on 21 July 1911—with the consent of prime minister H. H. Asquith and Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey, bypassing the non-interventionist majority in the Cabinet—that denounced the German move as an intolerable humiliation. There was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Moroccan Crisis
The First Moroccan Crisis or the Tangier Crisis was an international crisis between March 31, 1905, and April 7, 1906, over the status of Morocco. Germany wanted to challenge France's growing control over Morocco, aggravating France and Great Britain. The crisis was resolved by the Algeciras Conference of 1906, a conference of mostly European countries that affirmed French control; this worsened German relations with both France and Britain and helped enhance the new Anglo-French Entente. Kaiser's visit On 31 March 1905 Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany arrived at Tangier, Morocco and conferred with representatives of Sultan Abdelaziz of Morocco. The Kaiser toured the city on the back of a white horse. In a speech given at the German legation, the Kaiser declared he had come to support the sovereignty of the Sultan—a statement which amounted to a provocative challenge to French influence in Morocco. The Sultan subsequently rejected a set of French-proposed governmental reform ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Schleswig War
The Second Schleswig War (; or German Danish War), also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War, was the second military conflict over the Schleswig–Holstein question of the nineteenth century. The war began on 1 February 1864, when Prussian and Austrian forces crossed the border into the Danish fief Schleswig. Denmark fought troops of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire representing the German Confederation. Like the First Schleswig War (1848–1852), it was fought for control of the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg. Succession disputes concerning the duchies arose when the Danish king died without an heir acceptable to the German Confederation. The war started after the passing of the History of Schleswig-Holstein#The November Constitution, November Constitution of 1863, which tied the Duchy of Schleswig more closely to the Denmark, Danish kingdom, which was viewed by the German side as a violation of the London Protocol (1852), L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger (May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 56th United States secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 and the 7th National Security Advisor (United States), national security advisor from 1969 to 1975, serving under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Born in Germany, Kissinger emigrated to the United States in 1938 as a Emigration of Jews from Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe, Jewish refugee fleeing Nazi persecution. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II. After the war, he attended Harvard University, where he excelled academically. He later became a professor of government at the university and earned an international reputation as an expert on nuclear weapons and foreign policy. He acted as a consultant to government agencies, think tanks, and the presidential campaigns of Nelson Rockefeller and Nixon before being appointed as national security advisor and later secretary o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
