Who decides to go to war and are their decisions rational - Michael Mann

Watch our GDI Lecture with Professor Michael Mann, UCLA who will be discussing his new book 'On Wars: Who decides to go to war and are their decisions rational?'

In his new book, ‘On Wars’ (Yale University Press), based on intensive research on well-documented wars across history and three continents, Professor Mann offers a bold historical and conceptual account of wars and the irrational calculations that so often lie behind them. He suggests that decisions for war or peace are almost always made by small coteries of rulers and their entourages, even in democracies, and that most decisions are greatly swayed by emotions, ideologies ,domestic politics and taken-for granted cultures and institutions “baked in “ by prior history . Examining “who wins”, Professor Mann reject both the aggressive and the defensive variants of Realism dominant in recent political science explanations of war.

Michael Mann is Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology, UCLA. He is the author of many influential works, including his landmark Sources of Social Power series, whose first volume was written while teaching in Essex .He has also written Incoherent Empire; The Dark Side of Democracy; and Does Capitalism Have a Future? Prof Mann has worked at Cambridge University, the University of Essex, and the London School of Economics, and has held many visiting professorships. He is an elected fellow of both the British and American Academies.

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