Editing Diplomatic history (section)

===Causes of World War Two===
{{Main|Causes of World War II}}
[[File:Moscow negotiations paaskivi yrjokoskinen nykopp paasonen 1939.png|thumb|After the Second World War, [[Juho Kusti Paasikivi|J. K Paasikivi]] (in the middle), the 7th [[President of the Republic of Finland]], was remembered as a main architect of [[Finland]]'s foreign policy, especially with the [[Soviet Union]], which was at that time the war enemy of Finland.<ref>{{Cite book|editor-last=Wilsford|editor-first=David|title=Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe: a biographical dictionary|publisher=Greenwood|year=1995|pages=347–352}}</ref>]]
Sir [[Winston Churchill]]'s multi-volume ''[[The Second World War (book series)|The Second World War]]'', especially the first volume ''The Gathering Storm'' (1948) set the framework and the interpretation for much later [[historiography]].  His interpretation, echoing his own position before the war, that World War II was caused by the mad ambitions of [[Adolf Hitler]]; Churchill damned the cowardly and weak-willed British and French leaders who used [[appeasement]] in a futile effort to avoid the war. Churchill did not consider the argument that the alternative to appeasement was a premature war that Germany would win in 1938. The British historian [[A. J. P. Taylor]]'s 1961 book ''[[The Origins of the Second World War]]'' challenged Churchill's viewpoint and argued that Hitler had no master-plan for conquering the world. Instead he was an ordinary statesman –-an opportunistic leader seizing whatever chances he had for expansionism. The fact that a world war started over Poland in 1939 was due to diplomatic miscalculation by all the countries concerned, instead of being a case of German aggression.  British historians such as D.C. Watt, Paul Kennedy, George Peden and David Dilks argued that appeasement was not an aberration, and that it was an old British tradition which in this case flowed from numerous structural, economic and military factors. Historians such as [[Christopher Thorne (historian)|Christopher Thorne]] and [[Harry Hinsley]] abandoned the previous focus on individual leaders to discuss the broader societal influences such as public opinion and narrower ones like intelligence on diplomatic relations. In recent years the debates regarding the 1930s have continued, but new approaches are in use, such as an analysis in terms of Britain's national identity.<ref>Patrick Finney, "The romance of decline: The historiography of appeasement and British national identity." ''Electronic Journal of International History'' 1 (2000) [http://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/3385/1/Journal_of_International_History_2000-06_Finney.pdf Online].</ref><ref>Donald C. Watt, "The historiography of appeasement." in [[Alan Sked]] and Chris Cook, eds. ''Crisis and controversy: Essays in honour of AJP Taylor'' (1976) pp 100+.</ref>