re: #240 Dianna

The Peace of Illusions?

I snagged the middle paragraph of the first editorial review. I haven’t read the book, but I’m intrigued:

The Peace of Illusions intervenes in the ongoing debate about American grand strategy and the costs and benefits of “American empire.” Layne urges the desirability of a strategy he calls “offshore balancing”: rather than wield power to dominate other states, the U.S. government should engage in diplomacy to balance large states against one another. The United States should intervene, Layne asserts, only when another state threatens, regionally or locally, to destroy the established balance.

How a book intervenes, I’m not entirely sure.