Hitler's Shadow: Historical Analogies and the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait

Macdonald, Scot

doi:10.1080/714000347

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…17 Analogies are essentially "cognitive shortcuts"; they are substitutes for, rather than expressions of, detailed analysis. 18 Their simplicity, however, makes them tempting for both producers and consumers. Academic theorists often identify the "repetition" of historical events in order to create "elegant laws and generalizations."…”

Section: Gavriel D Rosenfeldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Was “Hitler” Before Hitler? Historical Analogies and the Struggle to Understand Nazism, 1930–1945

Rosenfeld

2018

Cent Eur Hist

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Since the turn of the millennium, major political figures around the world have been routinely compared to Adolf Hitler. These comparisons have increasingly been investigated by scholars, who have sought to explain their origins and assess their legitimacy. This article sheds light on this ongoing debate by examining an earlier, but strikingly similar, discussion that transpired during the Nazi era itself. Whereas commentators today argue about whether Hitler should be used as a historical analogy, observers in the 1930s and 1940s debated which historical analogies should be used to explain Hitler. During this period, Anglophone and German writers identified a diverse group of historical villains who, they believed, explained the Nazi threat. The figures spanned a wide range of tyrants, revolutionaries, and conquerors. But, by the end of World War II, the revelation of the Nazis' unprecedented crimes exposed these analogies as insufficient and led many commentators to flee from secular history to religious mythology. In the process, they identified Hitler as Western civilization's new archetype of evil and turned him into a hegemonic analogy for the postwar period. By explaining how earlier analogies struggled to make sense of Hitler, we can better understand whether Hitler analogies today are helping or hindering our effort to understand contemporary political challenges.

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Section: Gavriel D Rosenfeldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Was “Hitler” Before Hitler? Historical Analogies and the Struggle to Understand Nazism, 1930–1945

Rosenfeld

2018

Cent Eur Hist

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“…Across nations and time, the use of the past has played a significant role in the formulation and execution of foreign policy decisions, including those involving the use of force. For instance, there is considerable evidence to suggest that the Munich analogy—that is, Hitler‐like dictators who had to be stopped before they had the capability to embark on greater aggression—contributed to the reasoning of Anthony Eden to initiate the Suez war in 1956 against Nasser's Egypt, of George H. W. Bush and Margaret Thatcher to launch the Gulf war in 1991 (Macdonald, 2002), and of George W. Bush and Tony Blair to invade Saddam's Iraq in 2003 (Record, 2007).…”

Section: Historical Analogy and Foreign Policy Decision Makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Israel and Post‐Mubarak Egypt: Perils of Historical Analogy

Yossef

2012

Digest Mid East Studies

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“…Based on its purpose, there are usually two types of such researches: Descriptive research: The researcher’s purpose is merely to identify historical analogies. This approach helps to recognize the major events in a country’s foreign policy (e.g., Axelrod & Forster, ; Dyson & Preston, ). Explanatory research: Here, the researchers seek to investigate the impact of these analogies on foreign policy decisions (e.g., Hemmer, ; Houghton, ; Macdonald, ). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2 Explanatory research: Here, the researchers seek to investigate the impact of these analogies on foreign policy decisions (e.g., Hemmer, 1999;Houghton, 2001;Macdonald, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reasoning in Foreign Policy Making from the Analogy Perspective: The Case Study of Iran’s Nuclear Issue

Kamali¹,

Jooshani²

2019

Asian Politics and Policy

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Recent discussions about Iran’s nuclear issue have not only raised questions about its present and future policies but also over the past. The aim of this study is to identify historical analogies employed on the nuclear issue of Iran from 2003 to 2016. It shows how some senior government officials in Iran dealing with the nuclear issue have been fighting analogical battles, in terms of comparing Iran’s current situation with other historical events. Research findings suggest that “Hudaybiyya Peace Treaty,” “Peace Treaty of Imam Hassan,” “Treaty of Turkmenchay,” “Nationalization of Oil,” and “Resolution 598” are the episodes that different analogizers have used, as they present their agreement or disagreement with the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear policy.

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Hitler's Shadow: Historical Analogies and the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait

Cited by 12 publications

References 3 publications

Who Was “Hitler” Before Hitler? Historical Analogies and the Struggle to Understand Nazism, 1930–1945

Who Was “Hitler” Before Hitler? Historical Analogies and the Struggle to Understand Nazism, 1930–1945

Israel and Post‐Mubarak Egypt: Perils of Historical Analogy

Reasoning in Foreign Policy Making from the Analogy Perspective: The Case Study of Iran’s Nuclear Issue

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