Hello, the episode you're about to listen to is part of a multi-part series introducing an overview

of Japanese history.

This is a repeat of one of the original projects the History of Japan podcast was built on,

and is intended to serve as an update and supplement to these original works.

After 10 years, my hope is to return to this approach and to do it a little bit better,

given the skills that I have improved in the intervening years.

If you haven't been doing so already, you should listen to these episodes sequentially,

starting with episode 501.

Without any further ado, enjoy Falling.

In 1987, a British historian by the name of Paul Kennedy published the first edition of a book called The Rise and Fall of Great Powers.

It's about, well, more or less what it says on the tin.

Kennedy's work is a survey of great power politics from about 1,500 or so to the end of the 20th century,

and his argument, in as much as one can summarize, a 300-ish page from about 1,500 or so to the end of the 20th century,

and his argument, in as much as one can summarize,

a 300-ish-page book in a few sentences,

is that, A, economic power and resources are what make a great power great,

B, power is always relative,

because nation-states are in a constant state of military competition,

and thus C, military overstretch and economic stagnation, are the main threats to a great power's standing.

Much of the actual work is spent applying that basic framework to the last half a millennium of great power politics

to show how it fits. Now, the rise and fall of great powers has been controversial since it came out,

and I don't mean that in a bad way, just that the thesis triggered a lot of healthy academic

...