Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199758735 ISBN 13: 9780199758739

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2011

For more than two decades, John J. Mearsheimer has been regarded as one of the foremost realist thinkers on foreign policy. Clear and incisive as well as a fearlessly honest analyst, his coauthored 2007 New York Times bestseller, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, aroused a firestorm with its unflinching look at the making of America's Middle East policy. Now he takes a look at another controversial but understudied aspect of international relations: lying.

In Why Leaders Lie, Mearsheimer provides the first systematic analysis of lying as a tool of statecraft, identifying the varieties, the reasons, and the potential costs and benefits. Drawing on a wealth of examples, he argues that leaders often lie for good strategic reasons, so a blanket condemnation is unrealistic and unwise. Yet there are other kinds of deception besides lying, including concealment and spinning. Perhaps no distinction is more important than that between lying to another state and lying to one's own people. Mearsheimer was amazed to discover how unusual interstate lying has been; given the atmosphere of distrust among the great powers, he found that outright deceit is difficult to pull off and thus rarely worth the effort. Moreover, it sometimes backfires when it does occur. Khrushchev lied about the size of the Soviet missile force, sparking an American build-up. Eisenhower was caught lying about U-2 spy flights in 1960, which scuttled an upcoming summit with Krushchev. Leaders are more likely to mislead their own publics than other states, sometimes with damaging consequences. Though the reasons may be noble--Franklin Roosevelt, for example, lied to the American people about German U-boats attacking the destroyer USS Greer in 1940, to build a case for war against Hitler-they can easily lead to disaster, as with the Bush administration's falsehoods about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

There has never been a sharp analysis of international lying. Now a leading expert provides a richly informed and powerfully argued work that will change our understanding of why leaders lie.

About the Author:

John J. Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago. His books include The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, which won the Joseph Lepgold Book Prize, and New York Times bestseller The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, which has been translated into nineteen languages.

Review:

"Myth-makers beware! Writing with verve and economy, John Mearsheimer breaks new ground in exposing this hot-button issue to systematic scrutiny."--Jack Snyder, Professor of International Relations, Columbia University
"Is lying in international politics a shameful behavior or a useful tool of statecraft? When is it good for leaders to lie to their own people? Is there too much--or too little--lying in international politics? John Mearsheimer answers these and other similarly explosive questions with the boldness and originality for which he is so well known. This is an insightful essay by one of the world's most provocative thinkers. A fascinating read."--Moises Naim, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and former Editor-in-Chief, Foreign Policy
"This path-breaking study of lying in international politics is full of surprises. World leaders can lie to each other without suffering grave consequences, but they do it far less often than we might suppos
"Provides a number of intriguing insights and surprising conclusions."--The National Interest

"Entertaining and well-written...this is a short and punchy book with a lot of lists and observations rather than a fully formed theory...On its own terms, this book is an attempt to start a conversation about how lying operates in international politics. In that respect, it succeeds admirably, and contains a number of important avenues for future research."--International Affairs

"[Mearsheimer is] one of the most prominent, productive and imaginative scholars in the realist school of international relations. In this brief, highly instructive volume he discusses how and why leaders have used deception, dissembling and outright lying in pursuit of foreign policy goals."--TheRUSI Journal

"Myth-makers beware! Writing with verve and economy, John Mearsheimer breaks new ground in exposing this hot-button issue to systematic scrutiny."--Jack Snyder, Professor of International Relations, Columbia University

"Is lying in international politics a shameful behavior or a useful tool of statecraft? When is it good for leaders to lie to their own people? Is there too much--or too little--lying in international politics? John Mearsheimer answers these and other similarly explosive questions with the boldness and originality for which he is so well known. This is an insightful essay by one of the world's most provocative thinkers. A fascinating read."--Moises Naim, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and former Editor-in-Chief, Foreign Policy

"This path-breaking study of lying in international politics is full of surprises. World leaders can lie to each other without suffering grave consequences, but they do it far less often than we might suppose. However, when leaders lie to their own publics about foreign policy conduct, significant damage can result--particularly in democracies. John Mearsheimer categorizes the various ty