"Few can doubt the importance of the major powers in world politics, both in international history (past and future) and in international theory. This well-integrated volume makes a significant contribution by specifying what a major power is, by measuring status differentiation among the major powers in the post-1945 system, and by offering different analytic perspectives on the ongoing quest for status among global and regional powers." - Jack S. Levy, Board of Governors' Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University, and Senior Associate at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University