Leadership in International Relations The Balance of Power and the Origins of World War II

Using the engaging case of British security policy between the world wars, this book argues that an effective balance of power, which is the key to a stable international system, is a deliberate act of policy and that leaders play a determinative role in building an effective balance. After developing a model for effective leadership, the book uses extensive archival data as well as robust secondary literature, to explore how well British leaders in the 1930's performed their core task of security leadership before commenting on the return of the balance of power today and the unchanged challenge of engineering an effective balance that today's leaders must grapple with.