War and State Making: The Shaping of the Global Powers

Originally published in 1989, this is an empirical study of the impact of global war on the expansion and shaping of nation-states. Individual chapters examine the effects of such wars, and the preparation for them, on debt financing, expansion, military spending, welfare spending, GNP and domestic violence. The authors conclude that by virtue of the changes they spurn, global wars are inherently ‘accelerators of social change’.