Japan and the World Since 1868 (International Relations and the Great Powers)

Japan's position as a major power in international affairs is recent, but the changes it has gone through during even so short a time have been immense. How to account for its progress from prudence, through folly, to present success is the enquiry at the core of Michael Barnhart's study. He provides a masterly account of the domestic pressures that often helped shape foreign policy, as well as an evaluation of the changing world order itself.