Overview

Can increasing power in international politics be a bad thing for nations? In this provocative book, Giulio Gallarotti argues that the answer is clearly yes - as demonstrated by a series of examples that span geography, history, and issues. Gallarotti systematically develops the idea of the power curse and its concomitant, the power illusion. Establishing that the process by which nations augment power can produce adverse consequences, he goes further to show how, to the extent that they fail to correct for the negative effects of power, governments choose foreign policy strategies that are ultimately self-defeating. He cogently supports his theory in discussions of ancient Greece, nineteenth-century Britain, and the United States during both the Vietnam War and the George W. Bush administration. A provocative discussion of the potentially adverse consequences of increased national power in the context of international politics.

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9781588266934

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Reviews

Gallarotti uses diverse threads to weave a powerful and important tapestry of the ways in which the unwise but common use of power can backfire. - Robert Jervis, Columbia University.

Gallarotti uses diverse threads to weave a powerful and important tapestry of the ways in which the unwise but common use of power can backfire. - Robert Jervis, Columbia University.

Author Information

Giulio M. Gallarotti is associate professor of government at Wesleyan University. He is author of The Anatomy of an International Monetary Regime: The Classical Gold Standard, 1880-1914.

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