Download or read book The Rise And Fall of British Naval Mastery written by Paul Kennedy and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2017-01-26 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul Kennedy's classic naval history, now updated with a new introduction by the author This acclaimed book traces Britain's rise and fall as a sea power from the Tudors to the present day. Challenging the traditional view that the British are natural 'sons of the waves', he suggests instead that the country's fortunes as a significant maritime force have always been bound up with its economic growth. In doing so, he contributes significantly to the centuries-long debate between 'continental' and 'maritime' schools of strategy over Britain's policy in times of war. Setting British naval history within a framework of national, international, economic, political and strategic considerations, he offers a fresh approach to one of the central questions in British history. A new introduction extends his analysis into the twenty-first century and reflects on current American and Chinese ambitions for naval mastery. 'Excellent and stimulating' Correlli Barnett 'The first scholar to have set the sweep of British Naval history against the background of economic history' Michael Howard, Sunday Times 'By far the best study that has ever been done on the subject ... a sparkling and apt quotation on practically every page' Daniel A. Baugh, International History Review 'The best single-volume study of Britain and her naval past now available to us' Jon Sumida, Journal of Modern History

Download or read book Crisis Among the Great Powers written by Miroslav Šedivý and published by I.B. Tauris. This book was released on 2017-01-30 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1840, conflict within the Ottoman Empire gave rise to a serious all-European crisis which led to a diplomatic rupture between France and other Great Powers. The crisis was given the name of the natural frontier which divided France from the rest of Europe: the Rhine. Although the Rhine Crisis did not lead to armed conflict, many states were deeply worried by the unfolding events and by the failure of the peace so carefully negotiated at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Combined with accumulated political, social, national and economic problems, there were fears of general social upheaval and perhaps even revolution. This book uses the Rhine Crisis to evaluate the stability of the European States System and the functionality of the Concert of Europe in this period. In doing so, Miroslav edivy offers an original and deeply-researched insight into the history of international relations in the pivotal years between 1815 and 1848."

Download or read book Wars and Betweenness written by Bojan Aleksov and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The region between the Baltic and the Black Sea was marked by a set of crises and conflicts in the 1920s and 1930s, demonstrating the diplomatic, military, economic or cultural engagement of France, Germany, Russia, Britain, Italy and Japan in this highly volatile region, and critically damaging the fragile post-Versailles political arrangement. The editors, in naming this region as "Middle Europe" seek to revive the symbolic geography of the time and accentuate its position, situated between Big Powers and two World Wars. The ten case studies in this book combine traditional diplomatic history with a broader emphasis on the geopolitical aspects of Big-Power rivalry to understand the interwar period. The essays claim that the European Big Powers played a key role in regional affairs by keeping the local conflicts and national movements under control and by exploiting the region's natural resources and military dependencies, while at the same time strengthening their prestige through cultural penetration and the cultivation of client networks. The authors, however, want to avoid the simplistic view that the Big Powers fully dominated the lesser players on the European stage. The relationship was indeed hierarchical, but the essays also reveal how the "small states" manipulated Big-Power disagreements, highlighting the limits of the latters' leverage throughout the 1920s and the 1930s.

Download or read book Crisis Diplomacy written by James L. Richardson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1994-09-29 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although much has been written on international crises, the literature suffers from a lack of historical depth, and a proliferation of competing theoretical frameworks. Through case studies drawing on the rich historical experience of crisis diplomacy, James Richardson offers an integrated analysis based on a critical assessment of the main theoretical approaches. Due weight is given to systemic and structural factors, but also to the specific historical factors of each case, and to theories which do not presuppose rationality as well as those which do. Crisis diplomacy the major political choices made by decision makers, and their strategies, judgments and misjudgments - is found to play a crucial role in each of the case studies. This broad historical inquiry is especially timely when the ending of the Cold War has removed the settled parameters within which the superpowers conducted their crisis diplomacy.

Download or read book Crisis Among the Great Powers written by Miroslav Šedivý and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02-20 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1840, conflict within the Ottoman Empire gave rise to a serious all-European crisis which led to a diplomatic rupture between France and other Great Powers. The crisis was given the name of the natural frontier which divided France from the rest of Europe: the Rhine. Although the Rhine Crisis did not lead to armed conflict, many states were deeply worried by the unfolding events and by the failure of the peace so carefully negotiated at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Combined with accumulated political, social, national and economic problems, there were fears of general social upheaval and perhaps even revolution. This book uses the Rhine Crisis to evaluate the stability of the European States System and the functionality of the Concert of Europe in this period. In doing so, Miroslav edivy offers an original and deeply-researched insight into the history of international relations in the pivotal years between 1815 and 1848."

Download or read book The Great Powers and Orthodox Christendom written by Jack Fairey and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new political history of the Orthodox Church in the Ottoman Empire explains why Orthodoxy became the subject of acute political competition between the Great Powers during the mid 19th century. It also explores how such rivalries led, paradoxically, both to secularizing reforms and to Europe's last great war of religion - the Crimean War.

Download or read book Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers written by Yan Xuetong and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-22 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading foreign policy thinker uses Chinese political theory to explain why some powers rise as others decline and what this means for the international order Why has China grown increasingly important in the world arena while lagging behind the United States and its allies across certain sectors? Using the lens of classical Chinese political theory, Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers explains China’s expanding influence by presenting a moral-realist theory that attributes the rise and fall of great powers to political leadership. Yan Xuetong shows that the stronger a rising state’s political leadership, the more likely it is to displace a prevailing state in the international system. Yan shows how rising states like China transform the international order by reshaping power distribution and norms, and he considers America’s relative decline in international stature even as its economy, education system, military, political institutions, and technology hold steady. Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers offers a provocative, alternative perspective on the changing dominance of states.

Download or read book The Royal Family written by William T. Vollmann and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-08-01 with total page 801 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rich, haunting novel of street life in San Francisco’s Mission District, from the National Book Award-winning author of Europe Central In The Royal Family, William T. Vollmann uses the story of two brothers to construct a haunting series of parallels between the lives of the dispossessed and the anxious middle class. Henry Tyler is a failing private detective in San Francisco. When the love of his life, Irene--who happens to be married to his brother John, an ambitious contract lawyer--commits suicide, he clings despairingly to her ghost. Struggling to turn his grief into something precious, Henry enters into a new life of nightmare beauty and degradation as he attempts to track down the legendary Queen of the Prostitutes. Crafted out of language by turns eloquent, humorous, sensual, and obscene, and full of vividly rendered depictions of low-life bars, office politics, and hobo camps, here are Vollmann's familiar but ever surprising characters--the seekers, the vigilantes, the hypocrites, the sex workers. He has woven their stories into a vivid and unforgettable novel about the eerie paradoxes of possession and loss.

Download or read book The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers written by Paul Kennedy and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-10-27 with total page 1335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: About national and international power in the "modern" or Post Renaissance period. Explains how the various powers have risen and fallen over the 5 centuries since the formation of the "new monarchies" in W. Europe.

Download or read book Global Powers in the 21st Century written by Alexander T.J. Lennon and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2008-08 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the United States is considered the world's only superpower, other major powers seek to strengthen the roles they play on the global stage. Because of the Iraq War and its repercussions, many countries have placed an increased emphasis on multilateralism. This new desire for a multipolar world, however, may obscure the obvious question of what objectives other powerful countries seek. Few scholars and policymakers have addressed the role of the other major powers in a post-9/11 world. Global Powers in the 21st Century fills this gap, offering in-depth analyses of China, Japan, Russia, India, and the European Union in this new global context. Prominent analysts, including Zbigniew Brzezinski, C. Raja Mohan, David Shambaugh, Dmitri Trenin, Akio Watanabe, and Wu Xinbo, examine the policies and positions of these global players from both international and domestic perspectives. The book discusses each power's domestic politics, sources of power, post-9/11 changes, relationship with the United States, adjustments to globalization, and vision of its place in the world. Global Powers in the 21st Century offers readers a clear look at the handful of actors that will shape the world in the years ahead. Contributors: Franco Algieri, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Yong Deng, Xenia Dormandy, Evan A. Feigenbaum, Michael J. Green, Robert E. Hunter, Edward J. Lincoln, Jeffrey Mankoff, C. Raja Mohan, Thomas G. Moore, Robin Niblett, George Perkovich, Gideon Rachman, Richard J. Samuels, Timothy M. Savage, Teresita C. Schaffer, David Shambaugh, Robert Sutter, Dmitri Trenin, Celeste A. Wallander, Akio Watanabe, Wu Xinbo. About the Editors Alexander T.J. Lennon is editor in chief of The Washington Quarterly, the journal of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He is the editor of The Epicenter of Crisis: The New Middle East (MIT Press, 2008) and other Washington Quarterly Readers. Amanda Kozlowski is associate editor of The Washington Quarterly.

Download or read book The Graying of the Great Powers written by Richard Jackson and published by CSIS. This book was released on 2008 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The demographic trends of the twenty-first century will challenge the geopolitical assumptions of both the left and the right."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book The Tragedy of Great Power Politics Updated Edition written by John J. Mearsheimer and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2003-01-17 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A superb book.…Mearsheimer has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the behavior of great powers."—Barry R. Posen, The National Interest The updated edition of this classic treatise on the behavior of great powers takes a penetrating look at the question likely to dominate international relations in the twenty-first century: Can China rise peacefully? In clear, eloquent prose, John Mearsheimer explains why the answer is no: a rising China will seek to dominate Asia, while the United States, determined to remain the world's sole regional hegemon, will go to great lengths to prevent that from happening. The tragedy of great power politics is inescapable.

Download or read book The Great Powers and the European States System 1815 1914 written by F. R. Bridge and published by London ; New York : Longman. This book was released on 1980 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an interpretative study of the development of the European states system in the classic period between the congress of Vienna and the First World War in the light of the latest research work on the subject.

Download or read book Oil and the Great Powers written by Anand Toprani and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-04-04 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of oil is a chapter in the story of Europe's geopolitical decline in the twentieth century. During the era of the two world wars, a lack of oil constrained Britain and Germany from exerting their considerable economic and military power independently. Both nations' efforts to restore the independence they had enjoyed during the Age of Coal backfired by inducing strategic over-extension, which served only to hasten their demise as great powers. Having fought World War I with oil imported from the United States, Britain was determined to avoid relying upon another great power for its energy needs ever again. Even before the Great War had ended, Whitehall implemented a strategy of developing alternative sources of oil under British control. Britain's key supplier would be the Middle East - already a region of vital importance to the British Empire - whose oil potential was still unproven. As it turned out, there was plenty of oil in the Middle East, but Italian hostility after 1935 threatened transit through the Mediterranean. A shortage of tankers ruled out re-routing shipments around Africa, forcing Britain to import oil from US-controlled sources in the Western Hemisphere and depleting its foreign exchange reserves. Even as war loomed in 1939, therefore, Britain's quest for independence from the United States had failed. Germany was in an even worse position than Britain. It could not import oil from overseas in wartime due to the threat of blockade, while accumulating large stockpiles was impossible because of the economic and financial costs. The Third Reich went to war dependent on petroleum synthesized from coal, domestic crude oil, and overland imports, primarily from Romania. German leaders were confident, however, that they had enough oil to fight a series of short campaigns that would deliver to them the mastery of Europe. This plan derailed following the victory over France, when Britain continued to fight. This left Germany responsible for Europe's oil requirements while cut off from world markets. A looming energy crisis in Axis Europe, the absence of strategic alternatives, and ideological imperatives all compelled Germany in June 1941 to invade the Soviet Union and fulfill the Third Reich's ultimate ambition of becoming a world power - a decision that ultimately sealed its fate.

Download or read book The Decline of the Congress System written by Miroslav Šedivý and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-07-30 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the 'Congress System' became the primary instrument of diplomacy in Europe. So central was the Austrian Chancellor Metternich to the political-legal Congress System that the period has often been referred to as the 'Age of Metternich'. In this book, Miroslav Šedivý analyses Metternich's policy towards the pre-united Italian states from 1830 to 1848. With an emphasis on geopolitics and international law and drawing attention to the unsettled role of the Italian states within European diplomacy in the period, this book explains why the Italian peninsula never developed into the stable region that Metternich hoped to establish at the heart of the Congress System. Owing to the self-interested policies of some European Powers as well as the larger of the Italian states. Metternich proved unable to bring about 'the transformation of European politics' in Italy. Using a thorough analysis of the role that Italy played in the Congress System and based on extensive research in 18 European archives, this book explains why it was in Italy that the first war broke out after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, an event representing the first brutal blow to the Congress System.

Download or read book Crisis Among the Great Powers written by Miroslav Šedivý and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-11-30 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1840, conflict within the Ottoman Empire gave rise to a serious all-European crisis which led to a diplomatic rupture between France and other Great Powers. The crisis was given the name of the natural frontier which divided France from the rest of Europe: the Rhine. Although the Rhine Crisis did not lead to armed conflict, many states were deeply worried by the unfolding events and by the failure of the peace so carefully negotiated at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Combined with accumulated political, social, national and economic problems, there were fears of general social upheaval and perhaps even revolution. This book uses the Rhine Crisis to evaluate the stability of the European States System and the functionality of the Concert of Europe in this period. In doing so, Miroslav edivy offers an original and deeply-researched insight into the history of international relations in the pivotal years between 1815 and 1848."

Download or read book Aftershocks written by Seva Gunitsky and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-28 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past century, democracy spread around the world in turbulent bursts of change, sweeping across national borders in dramatic cascades of revolution and reform. Aftershocks offers a new global-oriented explanation for this wavelike spread and retreat—not only of democracy but also of its twentieth-century rivals, fascism and communism. Seva Gunitsky argues that waves of regime change are driven by the aftermath of cataclysmic disruptions to the international system. These hegemonic shocks, marked by the sudden rise and fall of great powers, have been essential and often-neglected drivers of domestic transformations. Though rare and fleeting, they not only repeatedly alter the global hierarchy of powerful states but also create unique and powerful opportunities for sweeping national reforms—by triggering military impositions, swiftly changing the incentives of domestic actors, or transforming the basis of political legitimacy itself. As a result, the evolution of modern regimes cannot be fully understood without examining the consequences of clashes between great powers, which repeatedly—and often unsuccessfully—sought to cajole, inspire, and intimidate other states into joining their camps.