In this exciting new volume, Richard Ned Lebow introduces his own con-
structivist theory of political order and international relations based on
theories of motives and identity formation drawn from the ancient Greeks.
His theory stresses the human need for self-esteem, and shows how it influ-
ences political behavior at every level of social aggregation. Lebow devel-
ops ideal-type worlds associated with four motives: appetite, spirit, reason
and fear, and demonstrates how each generates a different logic concern-
ing cooperation, conflict and risk-taking. Expanding and documenting
the utility of his theory in a series of historical case studies, ranging from
classical Greece to the war in Iraq, he presents a novel explanation for
the rise of the state and the causes of war, and offers a reformulation of
prospect theory. This is a novel theory of politics by one of the world’s
leading scholars of international relations.