Taking a fresh look at the history of diplomacy, this book looks at the fight for hegemony between France and Austria after the Peace of Westphalia 1648, showing how their clashes dragged the Scandinavian kingdoms into European top-level politics and forced them to take part in the play, constantly negotiating risks and profits. Historians Peter Lindström and Svante Norrhem discuss how the Great Powers were binding allies to their side, and how the Scandinavian countries and their political elites responded. Many of the diplomatic strategies were solidified through family alliances, patronage, and economic politics—something quite different from what is expected from today’s diplomatic neutralities.

The balance of power is one of the most influential ideas in international relations, yet it has never been comprehensively examined in pre-modern or non-European contexts. This book redresses this imbalance. The authors present eight new case studies of balancing and balancing failure in pre-modern and non-European international systems.

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Excerpt from France and the Alliances: The Struggle for the Balance of Power A Frenchman could not treat such a subject other wise than from a French point of view. But to try to understand one's adversaries is already to do them justice. With this spirit of justice I have endeavoured to inspire myself, yet not seeking to hide errors, which indeed do not fundamentally affect the whole of the French achievement. If Americans should see in this book, which has been written in good faith, fresh reasons for loving and esteeming France, then I shall have attained my object. The historic souvenirs which unite the two Republics have created imperishable ties between them. Being convinced that they may find in the study of the present time a positive justification for their old sympathies, I have striven to the best of my ability to make this justification clear, by telling, in the field of diplomatic action, the struggles of France for peace through the balance of power. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The former Secretary of State under Richard Nixon argues that a coherent foreign policy is essential and lays out his own plan for getting the nation's international affairs in order.