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

Simply put, the most powerful state is the one that prevails in a dispute.

The sad fact is that international politics has always been a ruthless and dangerous business, and it is likely to remain that way.

Great powers must be forever vigilant and never subordinate survival to any other goal, including prosperity.

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

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