F. Jurgen Dieringer
Bio
FJ Dieringer is a social scientist by profession, musician, writer, and chess player by passion. He strives to merge those inputs and tackle the intersection of arts and science.
Stories (11/0)
American Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was somewhat of an outlier at that juncture in history. As he guided the U.S. into World War I, he faced significant skepticism from the political elite. For many years, the U.S. had successfully adhered to the Monroe Doctrine, essentially telling Europeans to remain distant from the Americas, but America would stay home, too. Through gradual expansion, reaching as far as the Pacific, the nation evolved into the world's powerhouse — a development that went largely unnoticed as European powers were preoccupied with themselves. Yet, unexpectedly, American troops surfaced in the Flemish trenches, assuming a pivotal role.
By F. Jurgen Dieringer8 days ago in History
From Hyperinflation to Black Tuesday
During the interlude between the two World Wars, deep-cutting shifts in both economic and political landscapes emerged. As a result of the war, several economic crises negatively affected the democratization process of former authoritarian regimes. These episodes - from the German hyperinflation crisis of 1923 to the devastating "Black Tuesday" in 1929 – were not reduced to impacting domestic structures in the countries affected but played vital roles in shaping international relations. In a prosperous environment, there had been no Hitler, right? It is maybe not that easy. Why did the victor of the Great War, Italy, become a right-wing dictatorship, but France or Belgium did not? They faced the same economic hardships. Let's search for some explanations.
By F. Jurgen Dieringer10 days ago in History
Teutonic Decline?
Hansi Flick, the coach of the German Nationalannschaft, the national football team, just got fired. Rudi Völler, our hero of the 1990 World Cup, took over for a single game and rejuvenated the team. 2:1 against reigning vice-world champion France. Hardly anybody expected that, after all those fails in Russia, Qatar and against ambitious but not yet world-class teams like Colombia and Japan (1:4 last week). Thank God we already qualified for the EURO 2024 as the host nation. What is the issue if a team made up of world stars (ter Stegen), Champion League heroes (Gündogan), and centerpieces of leading teams (Kimmich) underperforms so horribly?
By F. Jurgen Dieringer14 days ago in Cleats
Paris Peace Conference 1919
At the termination of the catastrophic First World War in 1918, the victorious powers convened in Paris to find a pathway towards peace and stability. The Paris Peace Conference aimed to foster a durable peace by holding the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey) responsible for the war and establishing a new international order to prevent another catastrophic conflict. It was a theatre dominated by prominent characters, a meeting place of the world community, and the arena for diplomatic struggles. The results of the Paris Peace Conference were suboptimal. Ideals were confronted with the reality on the ground, and the results bore the seed of failure.
By F. Jurgen Dieringer17 days ago in History
Fading Giants
European history presents many transformative epochs, and the transition from the 19th to the 20th century is among the most compelling. Empires that had survived for centuries found themselves subject to tremendous change and immediate decline. Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire are two examples facing their final days during World War I.
By F. Jurgen Dieringer24 days ago in History
Spotting War from the Ivory Tower
The interwar period, 21 years between World War I's conclusion in 1918 and World War II's onset in 1939, played a foundational role in shaping International Relations (IR) as an academic discipline. As dramatic geopolitical shifts shook the world, scholars forged pathways to understanding the complexities of international politics by deduction and induction. This brought about seminal works of some iconic authors – and it is worth re-reading them today.
By F. Jurgen Dieringer29 days ago in History
The Outbreak of the Great War
World War 1, often termed "The Great War," forever changed the face of international relations and the world map. Distinguishing between structural and personal reasons for the outbreak of hostilities refers to the structure-agency debate in international relations theory. This provides a helpful roadmap to understanding the origins, the inevitabilities, and the human failures that led to the disaster.
By F. Jurgen Dieringerabout a month ago in History
Marrakech in the Summer
The picture is a bit misleading. There is no snow in the Atlas Mountains in July. When I checked summer temperatures in Morocco, I selected Essauira - but finally, I went to Marrakech without double-checking. The temperature difference is only about 20 degrees Celsius. This is how I survived and what I visited.
By F. Jurgen Dieringer2 months ago in Wander
The Marriage of Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing
The world saw several technical revolutions: The wheel, book print, and electricity, to mention just a few. Today we see the parallel breakthrough of two technologies: Quantum computing revolutionizes the hardware of data procession, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) the software. There are many warnings out there that this will be a marriage of Armageddon - for others, it is the savior of human mankind. Let´s explore what is behind this thrilling twosome.
By F. Jurgen Dieringer3 months ago in Futurism
Artificial Intelligence had more difficulty cracking Go than Chess
In 1997, an artificial intelligence (AI) named Deep Blue, developed by IBM, won a six-game match against the then-world chess champion Garry Kasparov, one of the best chess players in history. Grandmasters suffering from Kasparov’s dominance over decades were baffled. This victory marked a significant milestone in the development of AI, illustrating its potential to tackle complex tasks and scenarios. Stockfish and AlphaZero, the most advanced chess programs today, detached machine play further from human play. The structured, predictable nature of chess, with its finite number of possible moves, made it a suitable test bed for AI's calculating prowess.
By F. Jurgen Dieringer3 months ago in Futurism
