Beginning immediately after World War One, the German military and the Soviet Union entered into a secret partnership designed to overturn the order in Europe. Centering on covert economic and military cooperation, their arrangement led to the establishment of a network of military bases and industrial facilities on Soviet soil. Through their alliance, Germany gained the space to rebuild its army. In return, the Soviet Union received vital military, technological and economic assistance. Though Hitler ended their partnership in late 1933, he and Stalin would renew it in 1939. The result was the German - and then Soviet - invasion of Poland, and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe. Drawing from twenty archives in five countries, Faustian Bargain offers the definitive exploration of a shadowy but fateful alliance that led to the cataclysm of the Second World War.
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Speaker
Ian Ona Johnson is the P.J. Moran Family Assistant Professor of Military History at the University of Notre Dame. He received his PhD in military history from the Ohio State University in 2016. He taught at Yale University from 2017 to 2019 in the Department of History. He is author of Faustian Bargain: The Soviet-German Partnership and the Origins of the Second World War (Oxford University Press, June 2021). The recipient of Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowships, his work has appeared in publications including the Wall Street Journal, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, and the Journal of Military History.
Event Host
The American Foreign and Military Policy research cluster is an initiative of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at The Ohio State University. The cluster focuses on the study of US foreign relations, US defense policy, and international relations, diplomacy, and war as they affect US foreign policy and military affairs in contemporary and historical contexts. The cluster examines these elements of power from both American and foreign viewpoints in order to understand both the domestic drivers of policy and the impact of other nations on it. The cluster examines foreign and military affairs holistically, along with all elements of power – diplomatic, economic, military, informational, financial, intelligence, cultural, and legal – that have an impact on them.
