Systems, Stability, and Statecraft : Essays on the International History of Modern Europe

by Wetzel, David; Schroeder, Paul W.; Jervis, Robert; Levy, Jack S.

• ISBN13: 9781403963581
• ISBN10: 1403963584
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781137061386
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-04
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

Few scholars have provided as much insight into the struggle of leaders, ideas, and policies as Paul W. Schroeder. Constantly challenging conventional views, and drawing upon a masterly command of the sources and literature, Schroeder provides new answers to old questions about international history and politics since the age of Napoleon. Were European international relations really driven by balance of power politics, or has that traditional view blinded us to an underlying normative consensus on the "rules of the game" that frequently contributed to cooperation among the leading states in the system? Are alliances primarily a means of the aggregation of power against stronger states, or do states often use alliances as instruments of influence or control over their allies? Was World War I contingent upon a confluence of independent processes that intersected in 1914, or was it the product of more deeply-rooted and interconnected structural forces that pushed inevitably toward war? What is the role of moral judgment in historical investigation? Raising new questions and offering provocative new interpretations, Schroeder encourages historians and political scientists alike to reconsider their long-standing beliefs about the evolution and dynamics of modern diplomacy.

Author Biography

Paul W. Schroeder is Professor Emeritus of History and Political Science at the University of Illinois.

David Wetzel lectures in late modern European history at the University of California, Berkeley.

Robert Jervis is Professor of Political Science, Columbia University.

Jack S. Levy is Professor of Political Science, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgment	vii
Introduction	1	(20)
David Wetzel
Robert Jervis
Jack S. Levy
I War, Peace, and the Concert	21	(114)
Napoleon's Foreign Policy: A Criminal Enterprise	23	(14)
Did the Vienna Settlement Rest on a Balance of Power?	37	(22)
Bruck Versus Buol: The Dispute Over Austrian Eastern Policy, 1853--55	59	(18)
The Lost Intermediaries: The Impact of 1870 on the European System	77	(20)
Gladstone as Bismarck	97	(24)
Containment Nineteenth Century Style: How Russia was Restrained	121	(14)
II World War I	135	(58)
World War I as Galloping Gertie: A Reply to Joachim Remak	137	(20)
Embedded Counterfactuals and World War I as an Unavoidable War	157	(36)
III Tools of International Statecraft	193	(50)
Alliances, 1815--1945: Weapons of Power and Tools of Management	195	(28)
The Nineteenth Century System: Balance of Power or Political Equilibrium?	223	(20)
IV Trends and Implications	243	(64)
The Cold War and Its Ending in ``Long-Duration'' International History	245	(22)
Does the History of International Politics Go Anywhere?	267	(18)
International History: Why Historians Do It Differently than Political Scientists	285	(12)
The Mirage of Empire Versus the Promise of Hegemony	297	(10)
Publications of Paul W. Schroeder	307	(4)
Notes	311	(54)
Index	365