Do great leaders make history? Or are they compelled to act by historical circumstance? This debate has remained unresolved since Thomas Carlyle and Karl Marx framed it in the mid-nineteenth century, yet implicit answers inform our policies and our views of history. In this book, Professor Bear F. Braumoeller argues persuasively that both perspectives are correct: leaders shape the main material and ideological forces of history that subsequently constrain and compel them. His studies of the Congress of Vienna, the interwar period, and the end of the Cold War illustrate this dynamic, and the data he marshals provide systematic evidence that leaders both shape and are constrained by the structure of the international system.

Winner, 2014 ISA Annual Best Book Award, International Studies Association

Honourable Mention, 2014 Best Book Award, International Security Studies Section, International Studies Association

"Braumoeller presents the first logically sound and empirically tested systemic theory of international relations. He challenges systemic theorists such as Waltz and Wendt and combines rigorous theory, historical analysis, and statistical testing in one coherent package. He engages a wide range of literatures and debates, from the agent–structure debate to computational systems theory to the historical legacy of the Congress of Vienna, all with keen intelligence and even wit."
Andrew Kydd, University of Wisconsin

"Neither structural theories nor agent-based theories can adequately account for the fact that the system influences the behavior of states and states act to shape the system. Through rigorous theorizing, sophisticated statistical tests, and historical case studies, Braumoeller explains these reciprocal dynamics, and in the process transcends existing theoretical debates. This is systemic theory at its best. It deserves the fullest attention of all serious international relations scholars."
Jack S. Levy, Board of Governors' Professor, Rutgers University

"Bear F. Braumoeller’s The Great Powers and the International System: Systemic Theory in Empirical Perspective accomplishes what no other scholarly work has effectively done by bridging the agent-structure gap and arguing for a truly systemic theory of international relations."
Michael Cairo, Transylvania University, H-Net Reviews