CAPITULATION IS NOT THE END OF WAR, OR THE PROBLEM OF RESTORING PEACE AFTER A GLOBAL ARMED CONFLICT

Abstract

Armed conflicts of the 20th century provide food for thought about how wars arise and how they end. A key moment in the onset of peace is the cessation of hostilities, but peace is not a single event, but a process. The restoration of former normality entails the development of multidirectional and multi-speed social processes affecting diplomatic relations, economic ties, and humanitarian issues between states – adversaries in war. The author concludes that for the USSR to fully normalize relations with West Germany, which declared itself the successor to the Reich, more than ten years would have to pass before the embassies could be exchanged, and up to half a century before ordinary people could choose their country of residence