Columbia University Press
Glimmer of a New Leviathan: Total War in the Realism of Niebuhr, Morgenthau, and Waltz
Key Metrics
- Campbell Craig
- Columbia University Press
- Paperback
- 9780231123495
- 8.69 X 6.07 X 0.54 inches
- 0.74 pounds
- History > United States - 20th Century
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Yet even as Americans began to accept this new Realism, thermonuclear weaponry threatened to make it absurd. A major war to defend the nation might result in its total destruction; a thermonuclear war leading to the death of hundreds of millions of citizens seemed an unusual way to preserve American survival. This dilemma became central to the Realist understanding of Niebuhr, Morgenthau, and Waltz. How could a Realist approach to international politics and war be sustained in the face of possible global annihilation?
Glimmer of a New Leviathan is the engrossing story of how the three chief architects of an influential ideology struggled with the implications of their own creation. It offers crucial historical context for contemporary debates about weapons of mass destruction and the post-Cold War international order.
Author Bio
I'm an historian and theorist of modern international politics, with particular interests in the nuclear revolution, US foreign policy, and the Cold War. On these topics I have written several books and many articles, reviews, and essays.
I have just completed work on Marxism and the nuclear revolution, in the form of an article on nuclear weapons and current Marxist theory in the European Journal of International Relations and, with my Cardiff colleague Sergey Radchenko, an article in the Journal of Strategic Studies on Khrushchev's encounter with nuclear weapons and what this says about contemporary attempts to revive nuclear strategy.
My colleague Jan Ruzicka and I are working on our book on US preponderance and the nuclear nonproliferation regime, which will be published by Cornell University Press's series in Security Affairs.
I've been a professor here at Cardiff since February 2016. Before that I was professor at Aberystwyth University (2009-16) and at Southampton University (2005-09).
I have held senior visiting fellowships at Yale University (2004-05), the Norwegian Nobel Institute (2009), the European University Institute (2013), and Bristol University (2015).
Education
BA Carleton College (1986), MA University of Chicago (1988), PhD Ohio (1995)
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