The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500-2000

This is a survey of the rise and fall of the world's great powers over the past five centuries and extending into the 21st century, exploring the relationship between economic and military power, as it affects the rise and fall of empires, stating that, whether in the 16th, the 20th or the 21st century, nations project military power according to their economic resources. The author argues that the cost of that power is often more than even the strongest economies can afford in the long run - hence the rise and fall of nations. Through his analysis of past cycles, Kennedy aims to illuminate the present critical dilemma of the USA, the USSR, the countries of Western Europe and the emerging great powers of Asia.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Strategy and economics in the preindustrial world: the rise of the Western world - Ming China, the Muslim world, two outsiders - Japan and Russia, the "European miracle"; the Habsburg bid for mastery 1519-1659 - the meaning and chronology of the struggle, strengths and weaknesses of the Habsburg bloc, international comparisons, war, money and the nation-state; finance, geography and the winning of wars 1660-1815 - the "financial revolution", geopolitics, the winning of wars 1660-1763 and 1763-1815. Part 2 Strategy and economics in the industrial era: industrialization and the shifting global balances 1815-1885 - the eclipse of the non-European world, Britain as hegemon, the "middle powers", the Crimean War and the erosion of Russian power, the United States and the Civil War, the wars of German unification; the coming of a bipolar world and the crisis of the "middle powers" 1885-1918 and 1919-1942 - the shifting balance of world forces, the position of the powers 1885-1914, alliances and the drift to war 1890-1914, total war and the power balances 1914-1918, the postwar international order, the challengers, the offstage superpowers, the unfolding crisis 1931-1942. Part 3 Strategy and economics today and tomorrow: stability and change in a bipolar world 1943-1980 - "the proper application of overwhelming force", the new strategic landscape, the Cold War and the Third World, the fissuring of the bipolar world, the changing economic balances 1950-1980; to the 21st century - history and speculation, China's balancing act, the Japanese dilemma, the EEC - potential and problems, the Soviet Union and its "contradictions", the United States - the problem of number one in relative decline.