Liberal Leadership

How do dominant powers arise in the world? Why do other nations challenge them? What are the effects of Great Power wars on political and economic relations? Responding to such vital questions about the dynamics of the international system, Mark R. Brawley advances a comprehensive model of the relationship between war and hegemonic leadership. Drawing on the history of relations among the major Western powers, he considers episodes from the rise of the United Provinces in 1648 to the post-World War II dominance of the United States. Western states have experienced global war several times since the mid-seventeenth century. After each of these wars the victor has used its hegemonic position to organize liberal economic subsystems, which have eventually collapsed with the approach of the next major war. Whereas past theories have interpreted such cycles in terms of the distribution of power and capabilities, Brawley sheds new light on the role of domestic economic and political factors. Assessing the interests that drive particular states to assume the leadership - and the costs - of liberal subsystems, Brawley focuses on domestic gains and losses from international trade and on the preferences of key actors during each period regarding trade liberalization or related foreign policy decisions. Liberal Leadership will be stimulating reading for scholars and students in the fields of international relations, political economy, economic history, and the history of modern Europe and the United States.