This book examines the historical, diplomatic, economic, and strategic aspects of the European Recovery Program (ERP) -- popularly known as the Marshall Plan -- which brought Europe out of the chaos, hunger, poverty, desperation, and ashes of World War II. In it, authors from a variety of countries who are scholars, policy makers, and business leaders, address applications of the Marshall Plan's lessons learned to the 21st century for capacity building, human and sustainable development, and the role of public, private partnerships in emerging market economies and democratic societies.--Publisher's description.

This book examines the historical, diplomatic, economic, and strategic aspects of the European Recovery Program (ERP) - popularly known as the Marshall Plan.

Traces the history of the Marshall Plan and the efforts to reconstruct western Europe as a bulwark against communist authoritarianism during a two-year period that saw the collapse of postwar U.S.-Soviet relations and the beginning of the Cold War.

This curriculum will examine the diplomatic vision of the European Recovery Act (ERA) as initiated and promoted by Secretary of State George C. Marshall. The ERA, which came to be known as the Marshall Plan, is one of the most stellar examples of U.S. diplomacy in 20th century American history. Lessons will explore: diplomatic events surrounding the end of World War II, Marshall's leadership and diplomatic expertise in garnering congressional support for the ERA, the strategies of the U.S. and European diplomats who designed the implementation of the ERA, and the immediate and lasting effects of the Marshall Plan. In addition, each lesson emphasizes the “art and action of diplomacy” and highlights how negotiating skills rest on character and the intent to find peaceful resolutions. Through instruction about the ERA, the curriculum will teach about the work of the Department of State, the art of diplomacy, and the process by which it takes place.

Traces America's four-year diplomatic efforts to help rebuild post-World War II Europe, an endeavor that involved a thirteen-billion-dollar plan and was heavily influenced by political factors.

After the breakup of the Habsburg Monarchy, the Austrian-American relationship was characterized by a dwarf confronting a giant. America continued to be a heaven for a better life for many Austrian emigrants. For the growing American preponderant position in the world after World War I, the small Austrian Republic was insignificant. And yet there were times when Austria mattered geopolitically. During the post-World War II occupation of Austria, the U.S. helped reconstruct Austria economically and was the biggest champion of its independence. During the Cold War, the U.S. frequently used Austria as a mediator site of summit meetings. American mass production models, consumerism, and popular culture were adopted by Austrian youth. Americanization and American preponderance also produced anti-Americanism. With the end of the Cold War and Austria's accession to the European Union it once again lost significance for Washington's geopolitics.