In Why Leaders Lie, John Mearsheimer provides the first systematic analysis of lying as a tool of statecraft, identifying its different forms, the reasons for it, and the potential costs and benefits. Drawing both on historical and present-day examples, he argues that leaders often lie for good strategic reasons - as Roosevelt and Churchill did in World War Two - which makes blanket condemnation unrealistic and unwise. And there is always an important difference between lying to another state and lying to one's own people, as in the invasion of Iraq. John Mearsheimer discovers that interstate lying has always been unusual; due to the distrust among great powers, outright deceit is difficult to pull off, and sometimes backfires. Leaders more frequently mislead their own publics and democratic leaders like our own do it more often than dictators. This book explains why. There has never been a full discussion of international lying. Now a leading expert fills the gap with this richly informed and powerfully argued book. Why Leaders Lie provides a template for understanding the real world of high-level decision making.

Why Leaders Lie. John Mearsheimer

John J. Mearsheimer

Duckworth Publishing

A major theoretical statement by a distinguished political scholar explains why a policy of liberal hegemony is doomed to fail 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. 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 institutions. This 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 ended up as a highly militarized state fighting wars that undermine peace, harm human rights, and threaten liberal values at home. Mearsheimer tells us why this has happened.

Great Delusion, The

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio

Die Israel-Lobby

Stephen M. Walt

Campus Verlag GmbH

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Books by John J. Mearsheimer