The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities

Front Cover
Yale University Press, Jan 1, 2018 - Philosophy - 328 pages

A major theoretical statement by a distinguished political scholar explains why a policy of liberal hegemony is doomed to fail

It is widely believed in the West that the United States should spread liberal democracy across the world, foster an open international economy, and build international institutions. The policy of remaking the world in America's image is supposed to protect human rights, promote peace, and make the world safe for democracy. But this is not what has happened. Instead, the United States has become a highly militarized state fighting wars that undermine peace, harm human rights, and threaten liberal values at home.

In this major statement, the renowned international-relations scholar John Mearsheimer argues that liberal hegemony--the foreign policy pursued by the United States since the Cold War ended--is doomed to fail. It makes far more sense, he maintains, for Washington to adopt a more restrained foreign policy based on a sound understanding of how nationalism and realism constrain great powers abroad. The Great Delusion is a lucid and compelling work of the first importance for scholars, policymakers, and everyone interested in the future of American foreign policy.

 

Contents

1 The Impossible Dream
1
2 Human Nature and Politics
14
3 Political Liberalism
45
4 Cracks in the Liberal Edifice
82
5 Liberalism Goes Abroad
120
6 Liberalism as a Source of Trouble
152
7 Liberal Theories of Peace
188
8 The Case for Restraint
217
Notes
235
Index
299
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2018)

John J. Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. His many books include Conventional Deterrence. He lives in Chicago, IL.

Bibliographic information