John J. Mearsheimer is R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He is the author of many books, including Why Leaders Lie: The Truth about Lying in International Politics.
An intelligent, well-researched, and organized study.
*Foreign Affairs*
John Mearsheimer has got his timing just right. There is much
current talk about the need to this and do that to bolster NATO's
conventional forces, but there is no conceptual framework for
assessing all these proposals. This is a carefully argued and
well-written study that should immediately raise the quality of the
debate. Most importantly, it draws effectively on history to
illuminate contemporary problems.
*New Republic*
Mearsheimer offers a fine example of how defense policy analysis
should be conducted. He demonstrates an excellent grasp of
proportion and priority in concentrating on some of the most
important yet understudied questions of deterrence and modern
warfare. Why, he asks, are offensive strategies accepted or avoided
by states facing the prospect of large-scale conventional war? In
answering this question, Mearsheimer confronts other questions of
politics and perceptions that the strategic nuclear deadlock has
only accentuated. The historic and technical details are handled
masterfully while lessons are drawn for assessing the pivotal
military balance in central Europe. This is a sophisticated yet
thoroughly lucid book worthy of careful attention by any student of
U.S. national security policy.
*Journal of Policy Analysis and Management*
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