#james lacey

Over the course of human history, there have been rivalries between nations, from the antagonism of Athens and Sparta to the Cold War. Though the players have changed over time, the rules of the global game have several common threads running through them. Here are a few ways in which these rivalries have remained similar as time and civilization has advanced:

Power shifts (real or perceived) double the chance of war. In this regard, shifts toward parity are most likely to start wars. A clear historical     example of this effect was Germany’s turn-of-the-century drive to build a fleet the equal to Great Britain’s.

Twenty-five-hundred years after Thucydides identified the causes of the Peloponnesian War as Fear, Honor, and Interest, these three still serve as root explanations for the development and course of every strategic rivalry since then.

Only in the modern era did rivalries start having a negative economic impact on the societies involved. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, rivalries were good for those economies that were locked in one--this change in the modern age is a major historical discontinuity.  Still, even into the late 20th century there is evidence that rivalries could propel rival economies forward at rates often far greater than the international norm, as long as total war was avoided.

Historical evidence demonstrates that sustaining support for even a modest expenditure of GDP on a state’s military almost always requires a rapidly growing economy.

In every rivalry over the past several hundred years, the size of a rival’s economy is not nearly as important as its capacity to draw resources from that economy. Victory has not always gone to the side with the greatest materiel resources, although that often remains a good wager.  Rather, it has gone to the side best able to mobilize that base of resources for the decisive effort of war.

Publication Date: May 20, 2025 I’ve read a few scathing reviews of this yet-to-be-published nonfiction book. I’m not sure if the reviewers are being deliberately obtuse or if they are doing exactly what James Lacey claims many people do—discounting the historicity of Jesus and the New Testament because one-third of the global population claim he is the son of God. But Lacey, who is the author of…

Agatha Raisin ermittelt diesmal in #Norfolk. Im zehnten Fall trifft die ehemalige PR-Frau auf Gutsherren und #Elfen. (erschienen bei @Bastei Lübbe)

Agatha Raisin und der tote Gutsherr von M. C. Beaton

Agatha Raisin, ehemalige Inhaberin einer PR-Agentur und Hobbydetektivin, hat genug davon, an der Seite von James Lacey zu wohnen, der offenbar kein Interesse mehr an ihr hat. Sie mietet sich kurzentschlossen ein Cottage in Fryfam. Norfolk im Norden Englands ist im Gegensatz zu den Cotswolds auch wettermäßig eine Umstellung. Vor allem glaubt…