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271 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. vii (1950)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0271 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD WITH the ever accelerating tempo of convulsions in international relations, it is only natural that every time an event of world-wide implications in world affairs (like Munich, invasion of Poland, collapse of Nationalist China) takes place there appear a number of specialists and commentators on international affairs who proclaim that this or that area of world politics is the core of epoch-making de- cisions with world-wide implications for the trend of history. This is quite under- standable, since the average man is hungry for easy explanations to be had from his newspaper, radio, or television. These comments usually give the impres- sion of fully comprehending the march of events in terms of a simple and single causation. Although these conclusions or predictions are usually questionable, especially since such historians can appear very, very wise after the sequence of events has taken place, the fact remains that the trend of contemporary history has been de- termined from the fifteenth century on by the evolution of power politics in a very small portion of the earth, known as Europe. Furthermore, within the half-cen- tury or more before World War I, and thereafter, the events taking place in central- eastern Europe appear today to have been the most potent factors which, in one form or another, have influenced world history. While, around 1900, world politics were dominated by the great powers of Europe, the world-wide situation changed during World War I. The domination of the globe by a few European powers was weakened by the entrance of the United States into this conflict in order to prevent the conquest and resulting utilization of the resources of Eurasia and finally the globe by a power hostile to the United States. It is significant that World War I began in the region known vaguely as central- eastern Europe, or, more specifically, at Sarajevo, where the Archduke of Austria, Francis Ferdinand, was killed. Furthermore, World War II burst into flames in the same region, this time because the British and French democracies allowed themselves to be maneuvered into the shamefulness of Munich (whereby Czecho- slovakia was sold down the river by its democratic allies), and because of the invasion of Poland a few months later by Hitler's hordes. The subsequent course of events appears to indicate that the thesis of Sir Hal- ford J. Mackinder, in his Democratic Ideals and Reality (New York: Henry Holt, 1942, p. 150), is more than just a hypothesis: Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island; Who rules the World Island commands the World. Between 1945 and 1948, the Soviet Union extended her direct and masked fron- tiers into central-eastern Europe to the point where she had gained more territory there than Nazi Germany had been able to conquer by arms during World War II. These rapid changes in world politics forced radical revision in the basic policies of the United States. World War I compelled the United States to defend, primarily, the British and French territories. Thereafter for twenty years Washington was hardly interested at all in what is now known as the region behind the Iron Curtain. During World War II, and thereafter, Washington made numerous unfortunate decisions con- vii

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