On War and Peace

摘要

Sir Michael Howard spoke of the causes of war, nearly 30 years ago: 'How much ink has been spilled about it, how many library shelves have been filled with works on the subject, since the days of Thucydides! How many scholars from how many specialties have applied their expertise to this intractable problem!'1 What more, then, is there to be said? Can recent scholarship offer anything new and useful to policymakers and analysts?rnIn any overcrowded intellectual field, it is always salutary and refreshing to find books that organise, and attempt to make sense of, the whole theoretical debate. This is what David Sobek, a professor at Louisiana State University, successfully does in The Causes of War.