Yale University Press The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Mearsheimer's book makes the case that our leaders have failed to see that trying to spread democracy world-wide actually creates a more dangerous world. Hencethe war in Ukraine. He is convincing.

It's a fantastic book: theoretically informed, lucidly written with an in-depth analysis.

If there is anything to take from this book, it's that you need theories to understand how the world works. Not only that, we have an obligation to continually assess how well those theories fare both descriptively and prescriptively based on our history of conventional and nuclear wars. It's not good enough to believe in ideology/theory/political leadership especially when they more than often generate failures. Such is the case for liberal hegemony since its universalist nature renders their supporters incapable of respecting opposing states' nationalism and traditional balance-of-power politics. The lack of consideration and respect of these forces are risk factors we can no longer afford to ignore especially since USA's status as a sole superpower is no longer guaranteed. It may be counter-intuitive to those who don't follow theory, but as a convinced realist, we should start working with Russia to share security burdens and to contain China. We should even increase immigration from China to limit their economic growth in the long-term as long as resources allow it.

Reading through halfway, I find this book on international relations compelling and easily understandable. It compares liberalism to realism and nationalism, and the means to adapt accordingly.

A good book with depth.