What If Adolf Hitler Defeated the Soviet Union in World War II?

A political science professor recently posed a question to me. He wanted me to examine a scenario where Hitler defeated the Soviet Union in World War II. I was to look at how international politics would look different and if it were at all possible for it to be beneficial in the long term to the allied powers. That following is that analysis.

In the summer of 1942, Nazi Germany had a strategy that, if successful, would have changed the outcome of World War II severely. It’s debatable whether or not the defeat of the Soviet Union would have ultimately led to a total Nazi victory in Europe. One thing is for certain; there are a lot of ‘what ifs’ that can be considered. There are many forks in the road where one can speculate what would have happened had Germany defeated Russia. Could the Nazis have repelled the D-Day invasion? Would they have made another move on Great Britain? Would Hitler stop at Europe? If D-Day was still successful would the forces be strong enough to deal with Germany fighting a single front? The questions are endless. The answers are purely speculative, but fascinating to consider.

The only way these questions can truly be addressed is to approach the question as an alternative history. Plenty of alternative history novels exist about the post-World War II world. Most notably is “The Man in the High Castle” by Philip K. Dick. In that novel America is occupied jointly by the Nazis in the east and Japan in the west. In terms of international politics it’s a worst case scenario. The Nazis are allowed to continue their ethnic cleansing and after they finish the Jews they move on to Africa and continue their extermination policies with the indigenous people there.