In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler believed that his great-power rivals would be easy to exploit and isolate because each had little interest in fighting Germany and instead was determined to get someone else to assume the burden. He guessed right.

The most dangerous states in the international system are continental powers with large armies.

States care about relative wealth, because economic might is the foundation of military might.

Bandwagoning is a strategy for the weak.

In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler believed that his great-power rivals would be easy to exploit and isolate because each had little interest in fighting Germany and instead was determined to get someone else to assume the burden. He guessed right.

This self-defeating behavior, so the argument goes, must be the result of warped domestic politics.

The Soviet Union and its empire disappeared in large part because its smokestack economy could no longer keep up with the technological progress of the world's major economic powers.