Over The Horizon: Time, Uncertainty, And The Rise Of Great Powers
by David M. Edelstein /
2017 / English / PDF
3 MB Download
How do established powers react to growing competitors? The
United States currently faces a dilemma with regard to China and
others over whether to embrace competition and thus substantial
present-day costs or collaborate with its rivals to garner
short-term gains while letting them become more powerful. This
problem lends considerable urgency to the lessons to be learned
from Over the Horizon. David M. Edelstein analyzes past rising
powers in his search for answers that point the way forward for
the United States as it strives to maintain control over its
competitors.
How do established powers react to growing competitors? The
United States currently faces a dilemma with regard to China and
others over whether to embrace competition and thus substantial
present-day costs or collaborate with its rivals to garner
short-term gains while letting them become more powerful. This
problem lends considerable urgency to the lessons to be learned
from Over the Horizon. David M. Edelstein analyzes past rising
powers in his search for answers that point the way forward for
the United States as it strives to maintain control over its
competitors.
Edelstein focuses on the time horizons of political leaders and
the effects of long-term uncertainty on decision-making. He notes
how state leaders tend to procrastinate when dealing with
long-term threats, hoping instead to profit from short-term
cooperation, and are reluctant to act precipitously in an
uncertain environment. To test his novel theory, Edelstein uses
lessons learned from history's great powers: late
nineteenth-century Germany, the United States at the turn of the
twentieth century, interwar Germany, and the Soviet Union at the
origins of the Cold War. Over the Horizon demonstrates that
cooperation between declining and rising powers is more common
than we might think, although declining states may later regret
having given upstarts time to mature into true threats.
Edelstein focuses on the time horizons of political leaders and
the effects of long-term uncertainty on decision-making. He notes
how state leaders tend to procrastinate when dealing with
long-term threats, hoping instead to profit from short-term
cooperation, and are reluctant to act precipitously in an
uncertain environment. To test his novel theory, Edelstein uses
lessons learned from history's great powers: late
nineteenth-century Germany, the United States at the turn of the
twentieth century, interwar Germany, and the Soviet Union at the
origins of the Cold War. Over the Horizon demonstrates that
cooperation between declining and rising powers is more common
than we might think, although declining states may later regret
having given upstarts time to mature into true threats.
