The Grand Chessboard of World War II: The Strategic Rivalry of Seven Powers

In the grim history of World War II, the struggle between the Allies and the Axis powers has long since been settled. Yet the intrigue behind those tumultuous years remains little known: How did Chamberlain and Churchill each try to preserve the declining British Empire? How did Germany, defeated in World War I, regain room to survive under Stresemann’s shrewd leadership, and how did it ultimately meet its downfall under Hitler? Was France’s Maginot Line really useless? Could Italy, strong in appearance but weak in reality, have taken a different path through World War II? Why did Japan destroy itself through infighting within its military? How did the Soviet Union use “Stalinist strategy” to reshape the geopolitical map of Eurasia? How did the United States assess the situation, enter the war, and win global hegemony? Renowned young scholar Wang Dingjie offers a distinctive interpretation. The most powerful instruments of state are not easily revealed. By portraying the overt and covert struggles among Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the Soviet Union, and the United States during World War II, and examining the strategic thinking of each of these seven powers, this book seeks to reconstruct the life-or-death contest whose outcome was once uncertain. It revisits the key people, events, and issues, unravels the secrets behind the rise and fall of the great powers, and reflects on the strengths and weaknesses of the Chinese nation by understanding others in order to understand ourselves.