ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book describes key implications for theoretical, historical, and policy debates. In theoretical terms it advances on rationalist perspectives, whether realist, liberal, or constructivist, which assume that agents make efficient use of information. In terms of historical debates, it highlights an overlooked impediment to consensus, in ways that engendered ongoing instability across the interwar, Cold War, and post-Cold War orders. To demonstrate this instability in historical terms, it highlights five "dyads" of principled action and realist counter-reaction, as policy has been marked by compressed, rapid shifts from crusading to realist views. The book also describes implications for deliberative and effective leadership. In terms of deliberation, it counters approaches which overrate the importance of either principled certitude or intellectual expertise, on the grounds that each risks obscuring the alternative type of idea.
