Jurgen Dieringer
Bio
J Dieringer is a professor of international relations by profession and a musician, writer, and chess player by passion. He strives to merge those inputs and tackle the intersection of arts and science.
Stories (18/0)
Did you ever come across a Female Dictator?
When I asked my students this question, they became quiet for quite a while. Then, they came up with Margaret Thatcher and Imelda Marcos. The problem is that Thatcher was not a dictator, and Marcos was a desperate attachment to the dictator, her husband Ferdinand, infamous for her collection of shoes. Take the timeframe of 1990-2024, and you do not find any relevant female dictator globally. Dictators are male! What do we take from that? Maybe we need a feminist foreign policy to tackle the problem.
By Jurgen Dieringerabout a month ago in The Swamp
In Orbanistan
Liberal democracies are declining worldwide, as a new study by the Bertelsmann Foundation shows. In this reverse wave of democratization, Hungary stands out as a negative European example. Once the forerunner among the countries in transition, Budapest has been relegated year by year to become the pariah in the Western world. The process is closely linked to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has governed the country since 2010.
By Jurgen Dieringerabout a month ago in The Swamp
George Orwell meets Pink Floyd
George Orwell's "Animal Farm" and Pink Floyd's "Animals" are intertwined. Roger Waters, the driving force behind the Album, was inspired by Orwell, and the topic fitted Waters' political views that at that time were less extremist than they are today.
By Jurgen Dieringer2 months ago in Beat
Why do Democracies not fight Wars against each other?
Democratic Peace Theory at Work It is stunning! Democracies really don't fight wars against each other. Sure, you find some examples where countries are labeled "democracies" and get engaged in war. Still, we speak of fully-fledged democracies, "Western-style," such as Canada, France, Japan, or Australia. And here, indeed, you don't find examples. Why is that? Are democratic countries more peaceful in general? Well, this idea is another subbranch of what is called the Democratic Peace Theory. I will focus only on why they do not fight wars against each other. Autocracies are another issue.
By Jurgen Dieringer3 months ago in The Swamp
Poland voted for Europe, against Populism, and for an Open Society
The votes are cast. The electoral victory of the Polish opposition platform under Donald Tusk and associates against the incumbent, right-wing populist PiS party led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski is good news. Still, the fact that it does need a united front of democratic parties to secure a majority shows us that something is wrong.
By Jurgen Dieringer6 months ago in The Swamp
To Arm or Not to Arm, that´s the Question Here
You don't want to face an enemy without a weapon, right? If you can't run from aggression, at least you want to defend yourself. If the guy has a knife, you better have a gun. If he got rockets, you better have nukes. While the individual's strive for security is comprehensible, the interactive impact is that of an arms race that reduces security for both parties, at least if intentions are not generally aggressive. In international relations theories, the discussion about arms races mirrors general assumptions about how states interact. Unfortunately, both strategies, matching an enemy by armament and delaying armament to prevent a war, may lead to what it intends to avoid: a war. The buildup of the two World Wars shows this drastically.
By Jurgen Dieringer6 months ago in History
Duce and Caudillo
Creeping out of the First World War and stumbling into the roaring 1920ies, the ideological landscape of Europe changed dramatically. Italy and Spain both fell victim to fascist regimes. Although the ideological direction looks alike on the surface, both the foundation of the regimes in Rome and Madrid and the impact on international relations differed considerably.
By Jurgen Dieringer7 months ago in History
American Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was somewhat of an outlier at that juncture in history. As he guided the U.S. into World War I, he faced significant skepticism from the political elite. For many years, the U.S. had successfully adhered to the Monroe Doctrine, essentially telling Europeans to remain distant from the Americas, but America would stay home, too. Through gradual expansion, reaching as far as the Pacific, the nation evolved into the world's powerhouse — a development that went largely unnoticed as European powers were preoccupied with themselves. Yet, unexpectedly, American troops surfaced in the Flemish trenches, assuming a pivotal role.
By Jurgen Dieringer7 months ago in History
From Hyperinflation to Black Tuesday
During the interlude between the two World Wars, deep-cutting shifts in both economic and political landscapes emerged. As a result of the war, several economic crises negatively affected the democratization process of former authoritarian regimes. These episodes - from the German hyperinflation crisis of 1923 to the devastating "Black Tuesday" in 1929 – were not reduced to impacting domestic structures in the countries affected but played vital roles in shaping international relations. In a prosperous environment, there had been no Hitler, right? It is maybe not that easy. Why did the victor of the Great War, Italy, become a right-wing dictatorship, but France or Belgium did not? They faced the same economic hardships. Let's search for some explanations.
By Jurgen Dieringer7 months ago in History
Teutonic Decline?
Hansi Flick, the coach of the German Nationalannschaft, the national football team, just got fired. Rudi Völler, our hero of the 1990 World Cup, took over for a single game and rejuvenated the team. 2:1 against reigning vice-world champion France. Hardly anybody expected that, after all those fails in Russia, Qatar and against ambitious but not yet world-class teams like Colombia and Japan (1:4 last week). Thank God we already qualified for the EURO 2024 as the host nation. What is the issue if a team made up of world stars (ter Stegen), Champion League heroes (Gündogan), and centerpieces of leading teams (Kimmich) underperforms so horribly?
By Jurgen Dieringer8 months ago in Cleats
Paris Peace Conference 1919
At the termination of the catastrophic First World War in 1918, the victorious powers convened in Paris to find a pathway towards peace and stability. The Paris Peace Conference aimed to foster a durable peace by holding the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey) responsible for the war and establishing a new international order to prevent another catastrophic conflict. It was a theatre dominated by prominent characters, a meeting place of the world community, and the arena for diplomatic struggles. The results of the Paris Peace Conference were suboptimal. Ideals were confronted with the reality on the ground, and the results bore the seed of failure.
By Jurgen Dieringer8 months ago in History
