JAMES A. NATHAN is Khaled bin Sultan Eminent Scholar and Professor of International Relations at Auburn University. His most recent book is Anatomy of the Cuban Missile Crisis (Greenwood, 2000).

This small volume is as timely as the evening's news, as profound as the classics in history and politics. In 174 pages plus a bibliographic essay, Nathan provides a well-packed treatise on war, international order, and diplomacy in major segments of Western history. The book is as rich in history as in theories of international relations. Its historical range is awesome, spanning the centuries from the Treaty of Westphalia to the management of conflict in U.S. foreign policy from the 1960s to 1990s….Essential. Lower-division undergraduate collections and above.

• PrefaceWestphalia and the Rise of Modern DiplomacyForce, Order, and Diplomacy in the Age of Louis XIVThe HeyDay of the Balance of Power: Frederick the Great and the Decline of the Old RegimeThe French Revolution: "A Virus of a New and Unknown Kind"War and Order: The "Juggernaut of War" Meets a "Legitimate" PeaceOn Appeasement and Parvenus: Managing the Challenge of New PowerOn Coercive Diplomacy: The American Foreign Affairs ExperienceConclusion

JAMES A. NATHAN is Khaled bin Sultan Eminent Scholar and Professor of International Relations at Auburn University. His most recent book is Anatomy of the Cuban Missile Crisis (Greenwood, 2000).

This small volume is as timely as the evening's news, as profound as the classics in history and politics. In 174 pages plus a bibliographic essay, Nathan provides a well-packed treatise on war, international order, and diplomacy in major segments of Western history. The book is as rich in history as in theories of international relations. Its historical range is awesome, spanning the centuries from the Treaty of Westphalia to the management of conflict in U.S. foreign policy from the 1960s to 1990s….Essential. Lower-division undergraduate collections and above.

• PrefaceWestphalia and the Rise of Modern DiplomacyForce, Order, and Diplomacy in the Age of Louis XIVThe HeyDay of the Balance of Power: Frederick the Great and the Decline of the Old RegimeThe French Revolution: "A Virus of a New and Unknown Kind"War and Order: The "Juggernaut of War" Meets a "Legitimate" PeaceOn Appeasement and Parvenus: Managing the Challenge of New PowerOn Coercive Diplomacy: The American Foreign Affairs ExperienceConclusion

JAMES A. NATHAN is Khaled bin Sultan Eminent Scholar and Professor of International Relations at Auburn University. His most recent book is Anatomy of the Cuban Missile Crisis (Greenwood, 2000).

This small volume is as timely as the evening's news, as profound as the classics in history and politics. In 174 pages plus a bibliographic essay, Nathan provides a well-packed treatise on war, international order, and diplomacy in major segments of Western history. The book is as rich in history as in theories of international relations. Its historical range is awesome, spanning the centuries from the Treaty of Westphalia to the management of conflict in U.S. foreign policy from the 1960s to 1990s….Essential. Lower-division undergraduate collections and above.

• PrefaceWestphalia and the Rise of Modern DiplomacyForce, Order, and Diplomacy in the Age of Louis XIVThe HeyDay of the Balance of Power: Frederick the Great and the Decline of the Old RegimeThe French Revolution: "A Virus of a New and Unknown Kind"War and Order: The "Juggernaut of War" Meets a "Legitimate" PeaceOn Appeasement and Parvenus: Managing the Challenge of New PowerOn Coercive Diplomacy: The American Foreign Affairs ExperienceConclusion