A. Wess Mitchell

While I'm not quite as impressed with the author as he is with himself this is a useful examination of how the Habsburg state steered a viable course of survival by the use of effective diplomacy and making the most of those geographical features that aided its chances, thus providing still useful lessons in statecraft under circumstances of constrained options. Mitchell's conclusions on the demise of Habsburg power is that this was not a foreordained outcome; this is despite the rise of ethnonationalism, the introduction of railroads (which eroded Habsburg defensive options) and the ever-present enmity of the House of Prussia. For Mitchell the key point is that Francis Joseph made bad policy choices in terms of prioritizing military power (but doing so in a very inefficient fashion), failing to forge effective alliances and forgetting the Habsburg rule of thumb that anything that didn't facilitate the survival of the House of Austria should be sacrificed without too much sentiment. I will admit that it's hard to grant the author all the seriousness he probably deserves in as much as he recently left the service of the Trump Administration to spend more time with his family.… (meer)