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In this profound and incisive work, Angelo M. Codevilla introduces readers to the Ruling Class, the group of bipartisan political elites who run America. This Ruling Class, educated at prestigious universities and convinced of its own superiority, has everything to gain by raising taxes and expanding the reach of government. This class maintains that it knows what is best and continually increases its power over every facet of American life, from family and marriage to the environment, guns, and God.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that this Ruling Class does not represent the interests of the majority of Americans, who value self-rule and the freedom on whose promise America was founded. Millions of Americans are now reasserting our right to obey the Constitution, not the Ruling Class. This desire transcends all organizations and joins independents, Republicans, and Democrats into The Country Party, whose members embody the ideas and habits that made America great. The majority of Americans feel that the Ruling Class is demeaning us, impoverishing us, demoralizing us, and want to be rid of it.

This book explores the causes, operations, endings, and justifications of war. In the process, it demolishes many currently fashionable illusions, such as that peace is always preferable to war, that wars occur because of accidents or misunderstandings, and that technology changes the nature of war. Abundant historical and contemporary examples show, the authors contend, that all wars are deliberate political choices, that military operations follow timeless principles, and that, as Aristotle taught, the natural aim of war is victory. This new edition of the book that Eugene Rostow called a gem, Michael Howard called shrewd and trenchant, and LIBRARY JOURNAL called persuasive devotes substantial attention to the wars of the post–Cold War period, including the war on terrorism.

A classic of the Western tradition, Machiavelli's THE PRINCE has influenced political and philosophical thought since its publication four centuries ago. This volume places Machiavelli in the context of his own times, demonstrates his relevance to the history of political thought, and inquires into the place of his ideas in modern debates.

Codevilla argues that US intelligence, comprising the remnants of World War II and the Vietnam War, is out of touch with political conditions in the 1990s. He warns that intelligence failures in the past pale in comparison with the deep malaise affecting the entire service today.

“War presidents” are hardly exceptional in modern American history. To a greater or lesser extent, every president since Wilson has been a War President. Each has committed our country to the pursuit of peace, yet involved us in a seemingly endless series of wars—conflicts that the American foreign policy establishment has generally made worse. The chief reason, argues Angelo Codevilla in Advice to War Presidents, is that America’s leaders have habitually imagined the world as they wished it to be rather than as it is: They acted under the assumptions that war is not a normal tool of statecraft but a curable disease, and that all the world’s peoples wish to live as Americans do. As a result, our leaders have committed America to the grandest of ends while constantly subverting their own goals.

Employing many negative examples from the Bush II administration but also ranging widely over the last century, Advice to War Presidents offers a primer on the unchanging principles of foreign policy. Codevilla explains the essentials—focusing on realities such as diplomacy, alliances, war, economic statecraft, intelligence, and prestige, rather than on meaningless phrases like “international community,” “peacekeeping” and “collective security.” Not a realist, neoconservative, or a liberal internationalist, Codevilla follows an older tradition: that of historians like Thucydides, Herodotus, and Winston Churchill—writers who analyzed international affairs without imposing false categories.

Advice to War Presidents is an effort to talk our future presidents down from their rhetorical highs and get them to practice statecraft rather than wishful thinking, lest they give us further violence.

In this cross-cultural study, Angelo M. Codevilla illustrates that as people shape their governments, they shape themselves. Drawing broadly from the depths of history, from the Roman republic to de Tocqueville’s America, as well as from personal and scholarly observations of the world in the twentieth century, The Character of Nations reveals remarkable truths about the effects of government on a society’s economic arrangements, moral order, sense of family life, and ability to defend itself.

Codevilla argues that in present-day America, government has had a profound negative effect on societal norms. It has taught people to seek prosperity through connections with political power; it has fostered the atrophy of civic responsibility; it has waged a Kulturkampf against family and religion; and it has dug a dangerous chasm between those who serve in the military and those who send it in harm’s way. Informative and provocative, The Character of Nations shows how the political decisions we make have higher stakes than simply who wins elections.

What really happened to the billions of dollars worth of gold seized by Nazi Germany? What role did the Swiss government play and what are the implications of neutrality during wartime? The author addresses these questions, presents the case for and against Switzerland, and applies the lessons learned from World War II to the broader issue of companies--and countries--profiting during wartime.

In recent years college students have been flooding courses in international relations, as the September 11 attacks, the Iraq war, globalization, and other issues have underscored the importance of understanding the world around us.

But what can a student of international relations expect to learn in the classroom? In truth, the approach to the subject varies wildly from institution to institution and even from professor to professor.

A Student’s Guide to International Relations provides a vital introduction to this crucial but often misunderstood topic. Author Angelo Codevilla, who has taught international relations at some of America’s most prestigious universities, points the student toward what is essential in the field, explaining what foreign affairs is really all about, the history of the international system, the instruments of power, contemporary geopolitics, and much more.

This witty and wise book—the sixteenth volume in ISI’s celebrated Guides to the Major Disciplines—helps make sense of a complex world.

The Bush Administration has not achieved peace because it has not sought victory. Bringing terrorists to _justice_ has no more logical connection with defeating the causes for which they fight than does keeping certain weapons out of the hands of certain states, or even making sure that free elections with female suffrage become universal. No Victory, No Peace applies the classical concepts of warfare to America's current struggles, and shows the (hard) way to win peace. Published in cooperation with Claremont Institute.