This book, first published in 1978, examines the influence of the General Staffs upon the diplomacy of appeasement and rearmament between 1931 and 1941. The great question of European security and order are examined here through the eyes of Cabinets and Foreign Offices as well as through the eyes of Chiefs of Staff.

1. European Military Leadership and the Breakdown of Europe, 1919–1939 D.C. Watt 2. The German Generals and the Outbreak of War, 1938–1939 Gerhardt Weinberg 3. La Guerre de Longue Durée: Some Reflections on French Strategy and Diplomacy in the 1930s Robert Young 4. Stalin and the Red Army General Staff in the Thirties Albert Seaton 5. The Italian General Staff and the Coming of the Second World War John Whittam 6. ‘The Unnecessary War’? Military Advice and Foreign Policy in Great Britain, 1931–1939 David Dilks