A Guide to Intra-state Wars
A Guide to Intra-state Wars

Author: Jeffrey S. Dixon

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2015-10-22

Total Pages: 817

ISBN-13: 0872897753

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This title describes how civil war is defined and categorized and presents data and descriptions for nearly 300 civil wars waged from 1816 to the present. Analyzing trends over time and regions, this work is the definitive source for understanding the phenomenon of civil war.

The Steps to War
The Steps to War

Author: Paul D. Senese

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2008-07-21

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 1400837839

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The question of what causes war has concerned statesmen since the time of Thucydides. The Steps to War utilizes new data on militarized interstate disputes from 1816 to 2001 to identify the factors that increase the probability that a crisis will escalate to war. In this book, Paul Senese and John Vasquez test one of the major behavioral explanations of war--the steps to war--by identifying the various factors that put two states at risk for war. Focusing on the era of classic international politics from 1816 to 1945, the Cold War, and the post-Cold War period, they look at the roles of territorial disputes, alliances, rivalry, and arms races and show how the likelihood of war increases significantly as these risk factors are combined. Senese and Vasquez argue that war is more likely in the presence of these factors because they increase threat perception and put both sides into a security dilemma. The Steps to War calls into question certain prevailing realist beliefs, like peace through strength, demonstrating how threatening to use force and engaging in power politics is more likely to lead to war than to peace.

The Scourge of War
The Scourge of War

Author: Paul Diehl

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2010-03-25

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 0472024094

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J. David Singer's legendary Correlates of War project represented the first comprehensive effort by political scientists to gather and analyze empirical data about the causes of war. In doing so, Singer and his colleagues transformed the face of twentieth-century political science. Their work provoked some of the most important debates in modern international relations -- about the rules governing territory, international intervention, and the so-called "democratic peace." Editor Paul F. Diehl has now convened some of the world's foremost international conflict analysis specialists to reassess COW's contribution to our understanding of global conflict. Each chapter takes one of COW's pathbreaking ideas and reevaluates it in light of subsequent world events and developments in the field. The result is a critical retrospective that will reintroduce Singer's important and still-provocative findings to a new generation of students and specialists. Paul F. Diehl is Professor of Political Science and University Distinguished Scholar at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Explaining War
Explaining War

Author: Joel David Singer

Publisher: SAGE Publications, Incorporated

Published: 1979-11

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13:

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Causal Inquiry in International Relations
Causal Inquiry in International Relations

Author: Adam R. C. Humphreys

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2024-09-26

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0192556657

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This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Causal Inquiry in International Relations defends a new, philosophically-informed account of the principles which must underpin any causal research in a discipline such as International Relations. Its central claim is that there is an underlying logic to all causal inquiry, at the core of which is the search for empirical evidence capable of ruling out competing accounts of how specific events were brought about. Although this crucial fact is obscured by the 'culture of generalization' which predominates in contemporary social science, all causal knowledge ultimately depends on the provision of empirical support for concrete claims about specific events, located in space and time. This book not only explores existing philosophical debates around causation, but also provides a detailed study of some of the most fundamental methodological questions which arise in the course of causal inquiry. Using examples drawn from philosophy and from the study of international relations, it demonstrates what is problematic about established ways of thinking, brings new clarity to both philosophical and methodological questions, and seeks to enhance collective understanding of the contribution that causal inquiry can make to empirically rich and critically aware scholarship about world politics. It concludes by situating 'causal inquiry' in relation to other forms of inquiry employed in the study of world politics, emphasizing especially the often-unnoticed dependence of causal inquiry on precisely the kind of knowledge of specific events which historians are well-placed to provide.

International Relations and Scientific Progress
International Relations and Scientific Progress

Author: Patrick James

Publisher: Ohio State University Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 9780814209004

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International Relations and Scientific Progress contends that a theory focusing on the structure of the international system explains a wider and more interesting range of events in world politics than other theories. Such theorizing appears to be out of favor as the result of the apparent failure by structural realism, the most prominent system-level theory over the last two decades, on any number of fronts--most notably an inability to anticipate the ending of the Cold War and its aftermath. This new book is put forward as the most comprehensive and innovative theoretical work on paradigms in international relations since the publication of Theory of International Politics, which created structural realism, more than two decades ago. With appropriate revisions, however, structural realist theory can compete effectively and reclaim its primacy. The first part of International Relations and Scientific Progress assesses the meaning of progress in the discipline of international relations, a process that culminates in the creation of a new concept, the scientific research enterprise. The second part reviews structural realism within that context and identifies a lack of connection between theory and research that links power-based indicators to international conflict, crisis, and war. This part of the book makes the case for an elaboration of structural realism by showing that a system-level theory based on structure has great unrealized explanatory potential. By comparison, the current overwhelmingly research oriented agenda on state dyads imposes severe limitations on understanding that are not currently appreciated. Part Three sums up the work and explores new directions, most notablyas related to empirical testing of an elaborated version of structural realism that focuses on both continuity and change in the international system.

Peace Research
Peace Research

Author: Peter Wallensteen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-03-01

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 1136672206

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Comprising essays by Peter Wallensteen, this book presents an overview of the thematic development of peace research, which has become one of the most dynamic and innovative areas of war and conflict studies. Peace research began in the 1950s when centres were formed in the USA and Europe, and today there are research institutes and departments on every continent, with teaching and research programs in most countries, and peace researchers contribute to the development of international studies, development research and security analysis. Prof. Wallensteen has been a witness to much of this since forming the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in the late 1960s, and this book brings together thirteen of his articles with five new essays in one volume. The book presents articles on such key issues in peace research as the causes of war, conflict data, conflict diplomacy, non-violent sanctions and third- party diplomacy. In this way, it demonstrates how basic research can be conducted in fields often seen as ‘unresearchable’ and ‘too complicated to deal with’. This volume shows that it is a matter of developing definitions, creating valid measures and finding ways of collecting information, recognising that innovations of this kind require supportive research environments. Furthermore, the results are not only useful for the growth of research activity itself, but for finding ways of dealing with actual conflicts. Thus, attention is also paid here to conflict prevention, peace agreements, sanctions and third-party activity for preventing and ending armed conflict, and building a lasting post-war peace. This book will be of great interest to all students of peace studies, conflict resolution, war and conflict studies, development studies and IR/security studies in general.