Abstract
States seeking security and power will inevitably fall into traps intrinsic to the makeup of the international system. The security dilemma and imperial overstretch describe these predictabilities. States are led into these snares by leaders and their need to survive, not always to survive as independent units, but in some instances to defend their position as, or to become, a hegemonic power. This chapter examines two sources of vulnerability. First, systemic state vulnerabilities, the security dilemma, tests the limits of any state’s expansion. Second, states, seeking security or domination, will face serious challenges from the natural world which only drain resources. The importance of containment and a Fabian strategy becomes absolutely essential to curtailing the expansion of revisionist powers by targeting their economic faculties.
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Kassab, H.S. (2017). State and Power Vulnerability. In: Prioritization Theory and Defensive Foreign Policy . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48018-3_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48018-3_3
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