The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers

This work looks at national and international power during the modern, post-Renaissance era. It traces how different great powers gained and lost strength across five centuries, starting with new monarchies in W. Europe. The account covers politics and economics from 1500 to 1980 and asks why powers decline. Paul Kennedy also considers what may lie ahead for the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan, China, and the European Economic Community by the close of the twentieth century. Its themes include resources, economic staying power, military overreach, and the relative decline that follows when ambitions outrun what a power can support.

Why You Should Read?

• Discover how resources and economic staying power shaped which great powers gained strength.
• Explore why military overreach and relative decline threatened powers whose ambitions exceeded their resource base.
• Learn why Paul Kennedy judges a great power's strength only against the strength of other powers.
• Follow the closing forecast about China, the United States, Japan, the Soviet Union and the EEC.

About the Author

Paul Kennedy was born on 17 June 1945. He is a British historian of grand strategy, economic power, and international relations. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and newspapers and magazines in other languages. He has served on editorial boards for scholarly journals. A monthly column of his on world affairs is distributed by the Tribune Content Agency. He has written about British foreign policy and contests among great powers, stressing how economic strength supports military and naval power and how economic decline can reduce military and diplomatic influence.