Tripolarity and Hitler’s Strategy of World Conquest

Columbia University Press

1998

Acknowledgments

 

The theme of this book popped into my head sometime in early 1989, though I cannot remember exactly how or why. Back then, I did not expect that it would take three years longer to complete the book than it took the combatants to fight World War II. As is true of most protracted wars, the original reasons for fighting have long since been forgotten or abandoned by war’s end. Through it all, however, my one constant purpose has been to explain the Second World War, to understand what happened and why.

It is a pleasure to acknowledge here the debt I owe to Robert Jervis and Jack Snyder, my Columbia tutors, who communicated to me a lasting interest in the study of international relations. They have been a constant source of insight, good counsel, and encouragement. I am also deeply grateful to Robert G. Kaufman and Glenn H. Snyder, who read the entire manuscript with exceptional care and thoughtfulness; their wide erudition and keenness of mind greatly improved the book.

I owe the most to those persons whose works are cited in the text. The depth and scope of that debt will be apparent to the reader. I only hope that in standing on their shoulders, I have complied with the Chinese direction, and not spat on their heads.

I had a wonderful experience as a graduate student at Columbia University. In particular, I developed cherished friendships with my “comps buddies,” Tom Christensen and Jon Mercer, who taught me so much about the field and, more important, about good fellowship. I must note my gratitude to Deborah Welch Larson, who, when I was her research assistant, taught me by example how to research and write scholarly work; and to Edward Mansfield, now my colleague at Ohio State, for his patience and comments early on, when I was attempting to formulate the inchoate ideas that motivated this study. From 1993 to 1994, I had the great fortune to be a National Security Fellow at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs. In particular, I should like to express my deep gratitude to Professors Samuel Huntington, Stephen Rosen, and Michael Desch for their generosity and friendship. During its crucial phases, the study was sustained by grants from the Mershon Center at The Ohio State University. I especially thank the Directors of the Mershon Center, Richard K. Herrmann and Richard Ned Lebow, for their help in this regard.

I am grateful to Kate Wittenberg at Columbia University Press for believing in the manuscript and for encouraging me to improve it. Leslie Bialler provided expert editorial advice. Alex Coolman assisted in the production of the book. My twin brother, Russell Schweller, offered brilliant editorial suggestions (most of which I took) to strengthen the prose of the introductory chapter. The research assistance of Matthew Diascro and Calvin “Pete” Peterson is much appreciated. Vaughn Shannon prepared the index.

I thank the editors of International Security and International Studies Quarterly for permission to use a few passages from my articles in those journals in 1993 and 1994.

Above all I am indebted to Catherine Romano for her love and support and for being everything that she is and always will be to me. The book is dedicated to my father, David Schweller, who encouraged me in all I have tried to do, and to the memory of my mother, Linda Schweller, who struggled with great courage against mental and physical illnesses before succumbing to them.

Randall L. Schweller
Columbus, Ohio
June 1997