Small Nations in Times of Crisis and Confrontation

By Yohanan Cohen

Paperback : 9780791400197, 399 pages, July 1989
Hardcover : 9780791400180, 399 pages, July 1989
Out of print (Paperback)
Out of print (Hardcover)

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Table of contents

Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. Czechoslovakia 1938-1939
1. An Obstacle on the Road to Lebensraum
2. In the Crucible of Appeasement
3. Munich
4. Surrender
Part II. Poland and Her Neighbors
5. Poland Between the Two Wars
6. The War
7. Under the Yoke of Occupation
8. The "London Government"
9. The Teheran Conference
12. Potsdam and Its Implications
Part III. Finland—"The Winter War"
13. The Thunderhead Looms
14. Talks in the Kremlin
15. War
16. The Course of the Battles
17. World Sympathy and its Expressions
18. Peace Feelers
19. The Front Collapses
20. The Affair of the English-French Expeditionary Force
21. The Fateful Decision
22. The Winter War Saved Finland's Independence
Final Remarks and Reflections
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index

Description

The question is, how should small states behave under pressure? The analysis is of three cases: Czechoslavakia in 1938, Poland from 1939 to 1945, and Finland in 1940 and 41. The author is scrupulous in not drawing too many general lessons from these cases, but the imprudence of overreliance on great power protection and of ceding to justifications for surrender based on self-determination are made clear.

Reviews

"Once I was able to pick up Small Nations in Times of Crisis and Confrontation, I found it hard to put down. No wonder the book has been successful in Israel: it shows historically how cataclysmic events in Europe that led to the Nazi holocaust have eerie seeming parallels with Israel's current power position. " — Claude E. Welch, Jr. , State University of New York, Buffalo