Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; A note on sources and citations; Introduction; 1. Collective approaches to security: the nineteenth-century managed balance of power system and Great Britain; 2. France, 1919–40: the failure of security policy; 3. The United States, 1945–80: the natural history of a great power; 4. China, 1949–76: the strategies of weakness; 5. Israel, 1948–79: the hard choices of the security dilemma; 6. Collective approaches: the international economic order and Japan, 1945–85; Index.

Promotional Information

The Fate of Nations, published in 1989, identifies and illustrates the basic varieties of security policy.

Reviews

"Mandelbaum's book is brilliant and enjoyable...[he] charts how nations find ways of acting together in diplomatically organized groups for defensive purposes, and he analyzes certain countries' specific roles and histories. His knowledge of philosophy, politics, history and economics results in a stunning delineation of centuries of military actions, political maneuverings and cultural uprisings." Publishers Weekly "...the book displays a powerful analytic ability and is well worth reading." Naval War College Review "...thoughtful, stimulating, and enjoyable to read. Its breadth is commendable and points the way towards much needed holistic and multidisciplinary thinking about the international system." Barry Buzan, University of Warwick, in International Journal "This book is a tour de force. Michael Mandelbaum, an authority on the impact of the nuclear weapon on the contemporary world, has produced a synoptic history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through the experiences of six developed nations with the problem of national security." Lawrence S. Kaplan, American Historical Review

"Mandelbaum's book is brilliant and enjoyable...[he] charts how nations find ways of acting together in diplomatically organized groups for defensive purposes, and he analyzes certain countries' specific roles and histories. His knowledge of philosophy, politics, history and economics results in a stunning delineation of centuries of military actions, political maneuverings and cultural uprisings." Publishers Weekly "...the book displays a powerful analytic ability and is well worth reading." Naval War College Review "...thoughtful, stimulating, and enjoyable to read. Its breadth is commendable and points the way towards much needed holistic and multidisciplinary thinking about the international system." Barry Buzan, University of Warwick, in International Journal "This book is a tour de force. Michael Mandelbaum, an authority on the impact of the nuclear weapon on the contemporary world, has produced a synoptic history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through the experiences of six developed nations with the problem of national security." Lawrence S. Kaplan, American Historical Review