Do great leaders make history? Or are they compelled to act by historical circumstance? This debate has remained unresolved since Thomas Carlyle and Karl Marx framed it in the mid-nineteenth century, yet implicit answers inform our policies and our views of history. In this book, Professor Bear F. Braumoeller argues persuasively that both perspectives are correct: leaders shape the main material and ideological forces of history that subsequently constrain and compel them. His studies of the Congress of Vienna, the interwar period, and the end of the Cold War illustrate this dynamic, and the data he marshals provide systematic evidence that leaders both shape and are constrained by the structure of the international system.

The first book to apply a systemic argument to international relations theory

Uses quantitative conflict studies

Focuses on three in-depth historic case studies within diplomatic history

Bear F. Braumoeller, Ohio State University

Bear F. Braumoeller is a political scientist and an Associate Professor at Ohio State University. He has previously held faculty positions at Harvard University and the University of Illinois. His research lies at the intersection of international security, statistics and diplomatic history and in particular on translating the nuanced and contextual arguments of students of world politics into new statistical methods for political scientists. His work has been published in journals such as the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, International Organization, Political Analysis and International Studies Quarterly.