Product Description: Meant to transmit an understanding of warfare from World War I to the present, WHY NATIONS GO TO WAR, a unique book and a product of reflection by the author, is built around ten case studies culminating in the two new wars that ushered in the twenty-first century, Afghanistan and Iraq...read more

Built around eight case studies, Why Nations Go to War covers the crucial events that led to the outbreak of the 20th century's major military conflicts, with particular focus on the pivotal role leaders play in pushing a nation over the threshold into war. While acknowledging the importance of militarism, nationalism, alliance systems, and economic causes, the author seek to uncover the human dimension behind more mechanistic forces and explanations. Updates and expanded material includes coverage of the recent events in Kosovo, Iraq in the post-Gulf War era, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. For this edition, the chapter on India and Pakistan returns, with new material on recent tensions over nuclear buildup. Five new maps and updated bibliographies are included.

Distinguishes two basic types of foreign-policy leader, the crusader with a missionary zeal to make the world better and the pragmatist who refuses to get locked in a losing policy

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This introductory text on international relations concentrates on the struggle for power and order in world affairs. "The Might of Nations" aims to provide breadth and depth of coverage, tracing world politics since 1945 to explain the current world political climate. This extensively revised jubilee tenth edition is a new book for a new world. The advance of democracy and the retreat of dictatorship in world politics is explored throughout the text, highlighted by new material on the end of the Cold War and the collapse of soviet communism (ch.3). Chapter 4 has been extensively revised, featuring new material on the liquidation of Western colonialism and the dismantling of Apartheid in South Africa. There is new coverage of the war in the Persian Gulf (ch.6) and the resurgence of the United Nations (chs.10 &12), and a strong chapter on the economic struggle for power features new material on the economic struggle between Japan and the U.S. (ch.7). The process of economic unification in Western Europe is also covered. (view table of contents)