The role of Western allies on the rapid revival of West Germany from the "path dependence" angle

This study aims to investigate how and why the Western Allies played a role on the rapid revival of West Germany and her transformation from a defeated and war-torn to a fully recovered country reintegrated into the Western alliance after the Second World War via path dependence. The US led international order after the Second World War was path dependent because it has its roots in the history going back to the 1815 Vienna Settlement. That path dependent process reinforced itself through an institutional understanding, which had adaptable and rule-based characteristics, which deterred the victors from their arbitrary acts as it put restrictions on their state power and domination over weak states, allowed states to negotiate each other and reduced instability. In the course of time, that institutional understanding was embedded in political, social and economic structure so much so that changing or totally abrogating it, would cause undesired additional costs. On the other hand, the sequential events that happened as a result of reactive attitudes of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union towards each other at the beginning of the post-war era led both sides enter in a path which they could not easily reverse and those sequence of events culminated in the rapid revival of West Germany. The rapid revival of West Germany after the Second World War was necessary for the reconstruction of Europe and the reconstruction of Europe was necessary for the reestablishment of a stable and peaceful international order based on institutional understanding.