The foreign policy the US followed after the end of the Cold War to establish liberal hegemony in the world was doomed to fail. A more restrained foreign policy based on a sound understanding of nationalism and realism could have proved more effective. These are the main arguments acclaimed scholar John Mearsheimer has put forward in the tome that analyses Washington’s underpinnings of its international relations.

Mearsheimer writes that liberal thinkers generally concur that people have a set of inalienable rights. It takes a night watchman or a state to guard these rights. Additionally, many liberal academics contend that the state as an institution must practice social engineering to guarantee that people have equal opportunities as well as rights. This brand of liberalism may thrive in societies with some degree of social and cultural cohesiveness, but the author argues that this falls short when used as an analytical framework for world politics.