In an ideal world, where there are only good states, power would be largely irrelevant.

The ideal situation for any state is to experience sharp economic growth while its rivals' economies grow slowly or hardly at all.

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

When World War II started on September 1, 1939, the German army contained 3.74 million soldiers and 103 divisions.

Important benefits often accrue to states that behave in an unexpected way.

The liberal tradition has its roots in the Enlightenment, that period in the eighteenth-century Europe when intellectuals and political leaders had a powerful sense that reason could be employed to make the world a better place.

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