How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy
Author : John J. Mearsheimer
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN : 9780300279870
Call Number : 327.1 MEA
Summary:
It is widely believed in the West that Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine was not a rational act. On the eve of the invasion, British prime minister Boris Johnson suggested that perhaps the United States and its allies had not done "enough to deter an irrational actor and we have to accept at the moment that Vladimir Putin is possibly thinking illogically about this and doesn't see the disaster ahead." U.S. senator Mitt Romney made a similar point after the war started, noting that "by invading Ukraine, Mr. Putin has already proved that he is capable of illogical and self-defeating decisions." The assumption underlying both statements is that rational leaders start wars only if they are likely to win. By starting a war he was destined to lose, the thinking went, Putin demonstrated his irrationality.