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

Bandwagoning is a strategy for the weak.

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

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

Offensive realism predicts that the United States will send its army across the Atlantic when there is a potential hegemon in Europe that the local great powers cannot contain by themselves.

A state's potential power is based on the size of its population and the level of its wealth.

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