A leading historian of international affairs and a distinguished political scientist bring the rich experience of the past to bear upon the perplexities that confront today's statesman. They survey the evolution of the international system from the emergence of the modern state in the seventeenth century to the present, paying particular attention to the nineteenth century's balance-of-power system, principles of which still determine many of the usages of modern diplomacy. The author show, however, that this classical system has been profoundly altered by a twentieth-century diplomatic revolution: a complex of political, economic, military, and ideological factors that has destroyed the homogeneity of the international community and confronted diplomats with new problems and the need to find new expedients to deal with them. The effects of this revolution on the abortive experiment in system-making between the two world wars are described in detail, and the authors show how the modalities of the Cold War and the principles of the Nixon-Kissinger detente strategy were attempts to overcome them. The revised Second Edition includes an entirely new chapter on U.S.-Soviet cooperation and expanded coverage of the Reagan years, as well as a new analysis of the current international system."
This book is for upper division courses in Diplomatic History, Diplomacy and Statecraft, or history of foreign relations, and has sold extremely well through three editions. For the fourth edition, the original co-authors, Craig and George, were joined by Paul Lauren from the University of Montana. The book is divided into three parts: the first section is a survey of international history and diplomacy; the second part is about specific problems, divided into chapters on the Lessons of History, Negotiation, Deterrence, Coercive Diplomacy and Crisis Management; the third part explores ethics and other restraints on force and statecraft.