The Great Delusion

“A thought-provoking and bleak worldview.”—Gideon Rachmann, Financial Times (A Financial Times Best Book of 2018)

“[An] accessible treatise . . . a disquieting critique.”—Publishers Weekly

"Mearsheimer has been especially powerful, including in this new book, in pointing out that too many liberal internationalists have failed to contend with the enduring power of nationalism and identity. Recent history has proved him more right and the American foreign policy community more wrong.”—Jake Sullivan, Foreign Affairs


“A dagger pointed at the heart of America’s governing philosophy.”—Robert W. Merry, The American Conservative

“A closely-reasoned case for the virtues of restraint.”—David Warsh, Economic Principals newsletter

“A . . . radical critique of the liberal foreign policy paradigm as a whole.”—Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept

“Mearsheimer believes that it is folly for a nation-state to try and remake and socially engineer a different nation-state in its own image. . . . [He} opts for clarity over ornate prose: he defines his terms, constructs tight arguments, anticipates and responds to counterarguments.”—Daniel Kishi, American Conservative

"Even dissenters of Mearsheimer's approach to an explanation of world politics and American foreign policy will find this book worthy of their attention and consideration as a comprehensive theoretical statement deserving of praise."—S. R. Silverburg, Choice

“Accessible and yet rigorous, The Great Delusion deserves to be read by policymakers, scholars and the public alike. . . . The case against liberal hegemony as a grand strategy for the United States that Mearsheimer offers is compelling.”—Michael Lind, National Interest

Winner of the the James Madison Award, sponsored by the American Political Science Association

"This is the best of the many books that seek to explain how and why American foreign policy has gone so disastrously wrong. Mearsheimer hits the sweet spot where theory meets the chaos of today's world."—Stephen Kinzer, author of The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

"John Mearsheimer’s The Great Delusion is policy-relevant scholarship at its best: a summation of a leading scholar’s accumulated thinking about international relations theory and American foreign policy."—Christopher Layne, University Distinguished Professor of International Affairs, Texas A&M University

"Liberal states have many virtues, but The Great Delusion explains, with rigorous logic and admirable clarity, why their efforts to spread their values are usually doomed to fail. Both liberal crusaders and unrepentant realists have much to learn from this compelling book.”—Stephen Walt, Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

"Idealists as well as realists need to read this systematic tour de force. Even if you don't agree, it will discipline your own thinking."—Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Return of Marco Polo's World: War, Strategy, and American Interests in the Twenty-First Century