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[Introduction To] Shaper Nations: Stategies For A Changing World, William I. Hitchcock, Melvyn P. Leffler, Jeffrey W. Legro

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Shaper Nations provides illuminating perspectives on the national strategies of eight emerging and established countries that are shaping global politics at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The volume’s authors offer a unique viewpoint: they live and work primarily in the country about which they write, bringing an insider’s feel for national debates and politics.

The conventional wisdom on national strategy suggests that these states have clear central authority, coherently connect means to ends, and focus on their geopolitical environment. These essays suggest a different conclusion. In seven key countries―Brazil, China, Germany, India, Israel, Russia, and Turkey―strategy is dominated by …