Why Leaders Lie

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.

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"Intriguing" Max Hastings, The Sunday Times "Mearsheimer is admirably rigorous in his definition of lying...The Professor has a mastery of detail and a telling eye for a quote" Peter Oborne, Spectator "Myth-makers beware! Writing with verve and economy, John Mearsheimer breaks new ground in exposing this hot-button issue to systematic scrutiny." Jack Snyder, Professor of International Relations, Columbia University "In this fascinating little book, John Mearsheimer argues that lying about foreign policy is an intrinsic part of the democratic way of life. This is an important message for those members of democratic publics who wish to avoid being bamboozled by their leaders" Robert O. Keohane, Professor of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University "In his disheartening yet fascinating book, Why Leaders Lie, Mearsheimer offers a treatise on the biggest of big fat lies." Washington Post "Mearsheimer...teas[es] out in readable prose and cool analysis the differences between lying, cheating, concealment, and deception, and then between several kinds of lying - interstate, fear-mongering, strategic cover-up, and nationalist myth-making. He exhaustively examines each for cause and effect, policy and political consequences, crossovers between domestic and foreign territory, and much more." Australian Book Review

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John Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago. His books include The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, which won the Joseph Lepgold Book Prize, and New York Times bestseller The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, which has been translated into nineteen languages.

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