Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysis

by Kenneth Waltz

Overview

What are the causes of war? To answer this question, Professor Waltz examines the ideas of major thinkers throughout the history of Western civilization. He explores works both by classic political philosophers, such as St. Augustine, Hobbes, Kant, and Rousseau, and by modern psychologists and anthropologists to discover ideas intended to explain war among states and related prescriptions for peace.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231125376
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	09/26/2001
Edition description:	revised edition
Pages:	263
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kenneth N. Waltz is a recipient of the James Madison Award for distinguished scholarly contributions to political science from the American Political Science Association. He is Ford Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and is now at the Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. He is the author of Foreign Policy and Democratic Politics, Theory of International Politics, and coauthor of The Spread of Nuclear Weapons.

Table of Contents

Foreword, by by William T.R. Fox
Introduction
The First Image: International Conflict and Human Behavior
Some Implications of the First Image: The Behavioral Sciences and the Reduction of Interstate Violence
The Second Image: International Conflict and the Internal Structure of States
Some Implications of the Second Image: International Socialism and the Coming of the First World War
The Third Image: International Conflict and International Anarchy
Some Implications of the Third Image: Examples from Economics, Politics, and History
Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

Despite the changes in the world, the text stands as a classic effort to explain why men and nations fight.

Military Review

In this thoughtful inquiry into the views of classical political theory on the nature and causes of war, Professor Waltz follows three principal themes or images: war as a consequence of the nature and behavior of man, as an outcome of their internal organization of states, and as a product of international anarchy.

Foreign Affairs

It is fortunate that Waltz is not merely a qualified political theorist but also an able student of international politics with a command of the contemporary literature and of the raw data on the subject. He is thus able intellectually to analyze the contributions of the political philosophers and to assess their relevance and adequacy for understanding the real world of international politics.

American Political Science Review

[A] thoughtful inquiry into the views of classical political theory on the nature and causes of war.

Foreign

<:st>Reprint of the 1959 original, cited in , with a new four page preface. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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