The Uses of Military Power

In its first part, the present chapter develops a theory of the conditions determining decisions to go to war or to apply military threats, explains the impact of modern technology on the usability of force, and explores several factors that have tended to diminish the utility of military power in the contemporary world. The second part discusses the great variety of goals in support of which military power has been wielded in the past, paying special attention to the pursuit of economic gains, and ends with a critique of the Leninist theory of imperialism.