Why did Japanese policy makers decide to attack the United States while aware of their very limited chance of success in war? Historical facts indicate that the Japanese decision could be explained by the theoretical concept of preventive war: Japan decided to go to war in December 1941 in order to avoid having to fight a more costly war later. There are, however, apparent weaknesses in the concept of preventive war in explaining Japanese leaders way of thinking on the eve of the Pacific War. This book proposes a revised version of the concept of preventive war that better explains the...