The European Anarchy

Written in the bloodiest year of the First World War, G. Lowes Dickinson's bracing analysis asks a question that haunts us still: why do nations, despite their shared civilization, perpetually circle one another as enemies? Dickinson argues that modern Europe is not merely at war but has always been in a state of anarchy no sovereign authority above the state to enforce rules, no common law to arbitrate disputes. What emerged after the collapse of medieval Christendom was not progress but a machine for producing conflict: sovereign nations, each driven by historic grievances and mutual suspicion, armed to the teeth and waiting for the spark. Dickinson offers no easy consolations. He shows how France's view of Germany, Britain's view of France, Germany's view of Britain each is shaped by centuries of remembered injury, and how these competing narratives make diplomacy almost impossible. Written with extraordinary clarity for a man watching his world tear itself apart, this book remains a indispensable guide to understanding why the international order so often fails to prevent catastrophe.