Systems, Stability, and Statecraft: Essays on the International History of Modern Europe

Description

Few scholars have provided as much insight into the struggle of leaders, ideas, and policies as Paul W. Schroeder. Constantly challenging conventional views, and drawing upon a masterly command of the sources and literature, Schroeder provides new answers to old questions about international history and politics since the age of Napoleon. Were European international relations really driven by balance of power politics, or has that traditional view blinded us to an underlying normative consensus on the 'rules of the game' that frequently contributed to cooperation among the leading states in the system? Are alliances primarily a means of the aggregation of power against stronger states, or do states often use alliances as instruments of influence or control over their allies? Was World War I contingent upon a confluence of independent processes that intersected in 1914, or was it the product of more deeply-rooted and interconnected structural forces that pushed inevitably toward war? What is the role of moral judgment in historical investigation? Raising new questions and offering provocative new interpretations, Schroeder encourages historians and political scientists alike to reconsider their long-standing beliefs about the evolution and dynamics of modern diplomacy. Front Matter....Pages i-vii Introduction....Pages 1-19 Front Matter....Pages 21-21 Napoleon’s Foreign Policy: a Criminal Enterprise....Pages 23-35 Did the Vienna Settlement Rest on a Balance of Power?....Pages 37-57 Bruck Versus Buol: The Dispute Over Austrian Eastern Policy, 1853–55....Pages 59-75 The Lost Intermediaries: The Impact of 1870 on the European System....Pages 77-95 Gladstone as Bismarck....Pages 97-119 Containment Nineteenth Century Style: How Russia was Restrained....Pages 121-133 Front Matter....Pages 135-135 World War I as Galloping Gertie: A Reply to Joachim Remak....Pages 137-155 Embedded Counterfactuals and World War I as an Unavoidable War....Pages 157-191 Front Matter....Pages 193-193 Alliances, 1815–1945: Weapons of Power and Tools of Management....Pages 195-222 The Nineteenth Century System: Balance of Power or Political Equilibrium?....Pages 223-241 Front Matter....Pages 243-243 The Cold War and its Ending in “Long-Duration” International History....Pages 245-266 Does the History of International Politics Go Anywhere?....Pages 267-284 International History: Why Historians do it Differently Than Political Scientists....Pages 285-295 The Mirage of Empire Versus the Promise of Hegemony....Pages 297-305 Back Matter....Pages 307-370