(Ebook) Over the Horizon: Time, Uncertainty, and the Rise of Great Powers by David M. Edelstein ISBN 9781501707568, 1501707566

(Ebook) Over the Horizon: Time, Uncertainty, and the Rise of Great Powers by David M. Edelstein ISBN 9781501707568, 1501707566

Edelstein focuses on the time horizons of political leaders and the effects of long-term uncertainty on decision-making. He notes how state leaders tend to procrastinate when dealing with long-term threats, hoping instead to profit from short-term cooperation, and are reluctant to act precipitously in an uncertain environment. To test his novel theory, Edelstein uses lessons learned from history's great powers: late nineteenth-century Germany, the United States at the turn of the twentieth century, interwar Germany, and the Soviet Union at the origins of the Cold War. Over the Horizon demonstrates that cooperation between declining and rising powers is more common than we might think, although declining states may later regret having given upstarts time to mature into true threats.