Centering on the relations between Austria and the Western powers, this study is a major reappraisal of the diplomacy of the Crimean War. It also proposes a view of the nineteenth-century European international system that differs sharply from the prevalent Anglo-centered view. The author argues that the war was the result of a clash between two conflicting diplomatic approaches -- Austria's traditional diplomacy and Great Britain's new tactics of confrontation. -- Taken from book jacket.