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What happens when a president convinces the world he might just do the unthinkable?
In US grand strategy and the Madman Theory, James D. Boys argues that projecting calculated irrationality can terrify adversaries into submission, but at enormous risk. From Nixon's secret Cold War gambit to Trump's chaotic, tweet-driven diplomacy, he explores how these two leaders weaponised unpredictability to keep allies guessing and enemies off balance. But where does strategy end and madness begin?
In an era where perception can dictate power, unpredictability becomes a weapon and fear its sharpest edge. This book reveals how calculated chaos reshapes diplomacy, destabilises norms and forces nations to question whether the next move is genius or catastrophe.
Prelude: Donald Trump: madman in the White House?
Introduction: the madman theory
1 The symptoms of the madman theory
2 The architects of Armageddon
3 Eisenhower, Dulles and the Nixon vice presidency
4 A national madness
5 Nixon's madman strategy
6 Donald Trump and the madman theory
7 Trump 2.0: return of the madman theory
8 The once and future grand strategy
Index
Description
What happens when a president convinces the world he might just do the unthinkable?
In US grand strategy and the Madman Theory, James D. Boys argues that projecting calculated irrationality can terrify adversaries into submission, but at enormous risk. From Nixon's secret Cold War gambit to Trump's chaotic, tweet-driven diplomacy, he explores how these two leaders weaponised unpredictability to keep allies guessing and enemies off balance. But where does strategy end and madness begin?
In an era where perception can dictate power, unpredictability becomes a weapon and fear its sharpest edge. This book reveals how calculated chaos reshapes diplomacy, destabilises norms and forces nations to question whether the next move is genius or catastrophe.
