Through an investigation of political leaders' decision-making on the path to war, this timely book addresses one of the most important and misunderstood issues of our time: the preference for war over peace.

“Suicide for fear of death” is how the first chancellor of the German empire Otto von Bismarck described a leader's choice to start a war. In the lead up to World War I, the phrase “'The Germans are dangerous, but they are not maniacs" is how people assured one another they were safe. Indeed, beyond immediate self-defense against an obviously imminent attack, the decision to start a war may seem to most of us to be utterly irrational given its exorbitant costs-human, financial, psychological, moral, and otherwise. Why, then, have many leaders decided that war is the answer to their questions of how best to achieve their personal and policy objectives? What drives leaders to choose war in the future? How can we deter them?

Security and military expert Collin Meisel addresses these perplexing questions, offering a theory of war and testing it across five cases studies. Rather than try to predict, this book seeks to explain and understand these rationales, guiding readers through leaders' decision-making on the path toward war and gleaning lessons for the future. When we better understand why leaders make such drastic choices against far less bloody alternatives, we may be able to better understand how to shape choices in the future, perhaps reducing the frequency (if not bringing about the long-desired end) of war.

Collin J. Meisel is the director of analysis at the University of Denver’s Pardee Institute for International Futures at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies. He is also a non-resident senior fellow at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, a non-resident fellow at The Henry L. Stimson Center, and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

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