The Great Powers Routledge Revivals

This re-issued work, first published in 1959, is a collection of essays by British historian Max Beloff, designed to help us to understand and interpret the political problems of the twentieth century. The essays are divided into three key areas: the challenges and limitations of interpretation from a historian's perspective, the appropriate scale for political activity and organisation in the modern world, and the emergence of the United States of America as the most powerful nation on the planet.

This re-issued work, first published in 1959, is a collection of essays by British historian Max Beloff, designed to help us to understand and interpret the political problems of the twentieth century. The essays are divided into three key areas: the challenges and limitations of interpretation from a historian's perspective, the appropriate scale for political activity and organisation in the modern world, and the emergence of the United States of America as the most powerful nation on the planet.

First published in 1988, this historical and quantitative analysis of war defines systemic world wars as conflicts of wide scope and intensity, which leave profound historical legacies in their wake. Manus Midlarsky examines various possible explanations for the onset of such past wars as the Peloponnesian War, the Thirty Years’ War, and World Wars I and II. Midlarsky develops his basic theory of systemic war, outlining the reasons for the absence of wars of this magnitude and describing the violations of certain structural conditions that are associated with the onset of world war. A timely and relevant reissue, this insightful analysis will be of particular value to those with an interest in International Relations, War and Peace Studies, Military History, and Security Studies.

Originally published in 1988, this book examines the experiences of neutral states in Europe during the Second World War and in the postwar peiod. It examines both the practical and the theoretical considerations and the interface between the two, and discusses the implications of the experience of these countries for small states generally

Written during the early 1920s, at a time when Europe was still recovering from the catastrophe of the First World War, L.V. Birck’s The Scourge of Europe examines the economic issues surrounding the existence of public debt, its history, and possible approaches to problems associated with public debt as they were being pursued by the great powers of the time. Birck’s analysis contains a rigorous theoretical exposition and explanation of public debt as it was understood in the crucial period leading up to the Great Depression. This is then followed by an insightful exploration of the role of public debt in European financial and economic history. Finally, some reflections on the policies of England, the United States, France and Germany in the latter part of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries are included. This book will appeal to economic and financial historians, as well as to those generally interested in European policies towards debt from the Middle Ages to modern times.

Strategically placed on the global chess board, as well as controlling vast oil resources, the Middle East was one of the main theatres of Cold War. In the 1950s the Soviet Union had taken advantage of Arab Nationalists’ disillusion with British and French Imperialism, along with the emerging Arab-Israeli conflict, to establish relations with Egypt, Syria and Iraq. The United States responded by moving in to shore up the Western position. Confrontation was inevitable. Superpower Intervention in the Middle East was written in 1978, when this confrontation was at its height. The book’s main theme focuses on how the superpowers became competitively involved in local Middle East conflicts over which they could exercise only limited control, and the risks of nuclear confrontation of the kind which occurred at the end of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The threat to Western oil supplies is also examined. This is a fascinating work, of great relevance to scholars and students of Middle Eastern history and political diplomacy, as well as those with an interest in the relationship between the Western superpowers and this volatile region.