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The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. By John J. Mearsheimer. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2001. 555 pages. $27.95. Reviewed by Andrew J. Bacevich, professor of international relations, Boston University.
This is a book of considerable wisdom, larded with considerable nonsense. Most of the wisdom derives from the work of others. The author's own contribution-a theory of "offensive realism"-is unpersuasive. Worse, its conclusions-attempting to shed light on the challenges facing the only truly great power left standing after the cataclysms of the 20th century-rest on a breathtakingly inaccurate understanding of what makes America tick.
At its best, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics offers a useful primer on realism, a concept that explains the behavior of states in terms of power and self-interest. As the author, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, rightly points out, instinctively liberal Americans have never been entirely comfortable with the language and logic of realism. They bridle at its dour view of human nature. They resist its pessimism regarding the feasibility of world peace. Yet that discomfort by no means prevented American policymakers as far back as 1776 from adhering to realist principles. As John Mearsheimer writes, "the United States speaks one way and acts another."
Yet Mearsheimer aims to do more than puncture illusions, perhaps still harbored by a remnant of innocent undergraduates, that the United States, uniquely among nations, acts in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount. His larger purpose is to offer "offensive realism" as an explanation of all great power politics, useful not merely in understanding the past but also in predicting the future.
His theory reduces to a handful of propositions. Like any good realist, Mearsheimer believes that international politics is at root about power: "The overriding goal of each state is to maximize its share of world power." Given this imperative, "there are no status quo powers in the international system"-none, that is, except the state that achieves hegemony. But few reach this ultimate goal. Indeed, in all of modern history, only one has done so, namely the United States, which since 1900 has enjoyed hegemony throughout (but not beyond) the Western Hemisphere. (Mearsheimer dismisses global hegemony as a practical impossibility.)
Since all "great powers are primed...