The Pursuit of Dominance, Christopher J. Fettweis
The Pursuit of Dominance, Christopher J. Fettweis
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The Pursuit of Dominance
2000 Years of Superpower Grand Strategy

Author: Christopher J. Fettweis

Narrator: Tristan Morris

Unabridged: 11 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/27/2022


Synopsis

The United States is the most powerful actor in the international system, but it is facing a set of challenges that might lead to its decline as this century unfolds.

In The Pursuit of Dominance, Christopher J. Fettweis examines the grand strategy of previous superpowers to see how they maintained, or failed to maintain, their status. Over the course of six cases, from Ancient Rome to the British Empire, he seeks guidance from the past for present US policymakers. Like the United States, the examples Fettweis uses were the world's strongest powers at particularly moments in time, and they were hoping to stay that way. Rather than focusing on those powers' rise or how they ruled, however, Fettweis looks at how they sought to maintain their power. From these cases, one paramount lesson becomes clear: Dominant powers usually survive even the most incompetent leaders. Fettweis is most interested in how these superpowers defined their interests, the grand strategies these regimes followed to maintain superiority over their rivals, and how the practice of that strategy worked.

A sweeping history of grand strategy, The Pursuit of Dominance looks at the past 2,000 years to highlight what—if anything—current US strategists can learn from the experience of earlier superpowers.

About Christopher J. Fettweis

Christopher J. Fettweis is professor of political science at Tulane University. He is the author of Losing Hurts Twice as Bad, Dangerous Times?, The Pathologies of Power, and Psychology of a Superpower.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Richard on December 26, 2024

This book examines the strategies used by several major powers (the Roman, Tang, Mongol, Ottoman, Hapsburg and British empires) throughout history to maintain their status and standing as great powers, and, in the conclusion, what this means for the United States in the early twenty-first century. I......more

Goodreads review by James on December 22, 2024

Don’t bother with this one honestly.......more

Goodreads review by Steve on August 21, 2024

The content of the book was pretty interesting. Looking at the total history of each empire from a grand strategy point of view is different. I am not sure he made his points as well as he wanted to but the overall scheme was certainly eye-catching. However, production values marred the overall effo......more

Goodreads review by Gonzalo on March 27, 2024

Meh. Lacks coherence and it isn’t clear what the argument is. The case studies are isolated from each other and while interesting there is nothing new there. The most dramatic shortcoming is that there is very little connection between the historical case studies and the last chapter on US decline.......more

Goodreads review by Seth on March 07, 2023

You got to be appeasement maxing. Get those appeasement numbers up. It might be bad at some point, but at current margins, that’s not relevant. More appeasement the better And decline? The USs decline is LAUGHABLE. The UK gave up half the world after London got bombed to shit. The US barely left Afgh......more