Mark A. Menaldo, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Texas A&M University–Commerce, US

‘Leadership and Transformative Ambition in International Relations is a work whose substance mirrors its name: Mark Menaldo, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M International University, seeks with considerable ambition to transform reigning categories of international relations theory. The work is replete with erudite discussion of seemingly disconnected periods in international affairs, and it weaves a nuanced exegesis of Aristotelian moral thought through a dense set of examples ranging from the Pericles of Ancient Athens to Barack Obama of the modern moment. In general, the work succeeds in its ambitious task and is an excellent addition to the literature on International Relations and Leadership Studies.’

• Contents: Introduction 1. Realism and Ambition: Otto von Bismarck Reconsidered 2. The Strategic Perspective of Leadership: Ambition as Political Survival 3. Personality and Political Ambition 4. Transformational Leadership: A Theoretical Critique 5. Aristotle’s Idea of Magnanimity and Transformative Ambition 6. Pericles’ Transformative Ambition (1): Regime Politics and Character 7. Pericles’ Transformative Ambition (2): Democracy, Empire, and the Peloponnesian War Conclusion References Index

Mark A. Menaldo, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Texas A&M University–Commerce, US

‘Leadership and Transformative Ambition in International Relations is a work whose substance mirrors its name: Mark Menaldo, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M International University, seeks with considerable ambition to transform reigning categories of international relations theory. The work is replete with erudite discussion of seemingly disconnected periods in international affairs, and it weaves a nuanced exegesis of Aristotelian moral thought through a dense set of examples ranging from the Pericles of Ancient Athens to Barack Obama of the modern moment. In general, the work succeeds in its ambitious task and is an excellent addition to the literature on International Relations and Leadership Studies.’

• Contents: Introduction 1. Realism and Ambition: Otto von Bismarck Reconsidered 2. The Strategic Perspective of Leadership: Ambition as Political Survival 3. Personality and Political Ambition 4. Transformational Leadership: A Theoretical Critique 5. Aristotle’s Idea of Magnanimity and Transformative Ambition 6. Pericles’ Transformative Ambition (1): Regime Politics and Character 7. Pericles’ Transformative Ambition (2): Democracy, Empire, and the Peloponnesian War Conclusion References Index

Mark A. Menaldo, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Texas A&M University–Commerce, US

‘Leadership and Transformative Ambition in International Relations is a work whose substance mirrors its name: Mark Menaldo, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M International University, seeks with considerable ambition to transform reigning categories of international relations theory. The work is replete with erudite discussion of seemingly disconnected periods in international affairs, and it weaves a nuanced exegesis of Aristotelian moral thought through a dense set of examples ranging from the Pericles of Ancient Athens to Barack Obama of the modern moment. In general, the work succeeds in its ambitious task and is an excellent addition to the literature on International Relations and Leadership Studies.’

• Contents: Introduction 1. Realism and Ambition: Otto von Bismarck Reconsidered 2. The Strategic Perspective of Leadership: Ambition as Political Survival 3. Personality and Political Ambition 4. Transformational Leadership: A Theoretical Critique 5. Aristotle’s Idea of Magnanimity and Transformative Ambition 6. Pericles’ Transformative Ambition (1): Regime Politics and Character 7. Pericles’ Transformative Ambition (2): Democracy, Empire, and the Peloponnesian War Conclusion References Index