The Great Illusion by Norman Angell

Why twentieth-century methods must differ from eighteenth -- The vagueness of our conceptions of statecraft -- How Colonies are "owned" -- Some little recognized facts -- Why foreigners could not fight England for her self-governing Colonies -- She does not "own" them, since they are masters of their own destiny -- The paradox of conquest: England in a worse position in regard to her own Colonies than in regard to foreign nations -- Her experience as the oldest and most practised colonizer in history -- Recent French experience -- Could Germany hope to do what England cannot do?

The foregoing chapters dispose of the first six of the seven propositions outlined in Chapter III. There remains the seventh, dealing with the notion that in some way England's security and prosperity would be threatened by a foreign nation "taking our Colonies from us" -- a thing which we are assured her rivals are burning to do, as it would involve the "breaking up of the British Empire" to their advantage.