Both articles “General Marshall Summarizes the lessons of World War II” and “President Dwight D. Eisenhower Warns about the Military-Industrial Complex” suggest that national interests usually guide states in the international system. This implies that there is no government in the international system that can foster unity and understanding among actors. The international system exists according to the Hobbestain state of nature that is characterized by anarchy, brutality, nasty life, and selfishness.
General Marshal Advices Americans in the article that they should strive to form a strong military that would protect their lives and properties in case another war takes place. The president in the article observes that the state had to change its foreign and domestic policies to survive in the international system.
Even though the general accepts that the formation of international regimes would prevent the occurrence of another war, he still holds that the United States should always participate in fully informing those regimes. For instance, the German war philosopher depicted war as an exceptional and vicious type of political achievement. Polarity, which is the distribution of power in the international, is achieved through military strength.
In the article “General Marshall Summarizes the lessons of World War II”, it is true that national interests guide states. Any state strives to achieve greatness by trying to outdo the other. General Marshall observes that Japan and Germany achieved their national interests through external aggression. Hitler utilized his military strength to unleash terror on other states to achieve selfish interests (Mueller 73). The general therefore claimed that America had to prepare itself amicably because it lacked arms and equipment by the time Japan struck.
In the article “President Dwight D. Eisenhower Warns about the Military-Industrial Complex”, the former head of state, Dwight Eisenhower, was trying to assess the achievements of the US in the 1950s. The head of state claimed that the US had been constrained by the developments in the international system. The international system was characterized by conflicts, aggression, and wars. The head of state suggested that it was the highest time the US accumulated arms to safeguard itself from external aggression. The state had to fund scientific research that would come up with technological weapons needed in containing aggressors in the international system (Johnson 249).
In both articles, the head of state and the military leader believe that the changing nature of the international system demanded actions and policies that would bring greatness to the state. Through analyzing the two articles, it is eminent that certain inherent characteristics, including anarchy and personality, influence the behavior of states in the international system (Calvocoressi 143). In the article “General Marshall Summarizes the lessons of World War II”, international laws, organizations, and regimes affect policymaking in government (Barston 60).
The two essayists concur with the fact that inequality is one of the major characteristics that differentiate states in the international system. Various states cannot behave in the same way. These inequalities could be in terms of the economy, natural resource endowment, military capability, size of the state, and population. In the international system, states are hierarchically arranged meaning that the most powerful ones such as Japan, Germany, the US, and the United Kingdom are always at the top.
The existence of states should respect the pecking order (Morgenthau 34). There is always hegemony in the international system where the position occupied by a state determines the strategies to be employed. In the current international system, the G8, as well as other powerful actors such as G20 and the Pacific realm lead the world. The powerful states control the affairs of the international system, as suggested by General Marshall in the article “General Marshall Summarizes the lessons of World War II”. The head of state agrees in the article “President Dwight D. Eisenhower Warns about the Military-Industrial Complex” that Americans should devise methods that would help them control the affairs of the world.
Works Cited
Barston, Ronald. Modern diplomacy. New York, NY: Pearson Education, 2006. Print.
Calvocoressi, Ambrose. World Politics since 1945. 9th ed. New York: Longman, 2008. Print.
Johnson, Michael. Reading the American past: selected historical documents: volume II: from 1865. 4th ed. New York: Bedford, 2008. Print.
Morgenthau, Hans. Politics among Nations. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005. Print.
Mueller, John. War, Presidents, and Public Opinion. New York: John Wiley, 1973. Print.