What Causes War?: An Introduction to Theories of International Conflict

by Greg Cashman

Now in a thoroughly revised and updated edition, this classic text presents a comprehensive survey of the many alternative theories that attempt to explain the causes of interstate war. For each theory, Greg Cashman examines the arguments and counterarguments, considers the empirical evidence and counterevidence generated by social-science research, looks at historical applications of the theory, and discusses the theory’s implications for restraining international violence.

Among the questions he explores are: Are humans aggressive by nature? Do individual differences among leaders matter? How might poor decision making procedures lead to war? Why do leaders engage in seemingly risky and irrational policies that end in war? Why do states with internal conflicts seem to become entangled in wars with their neighbors? What roles do nationalism and ethnicity play in international conflict? What kinds of countries are most likely to become involved in war? Why have certain pairs of countries been particularly war-prone over the centuries? Can strong states deter war? Can we find any patterns in the way that war breaks out? How do balances of power or changes in balances of power make war more likely? Do social scientists currently have an answer to the question of what causes war?

Cashman examines theories of war at the individual, substate, nation-state, dyadic, and international systems level of analysis. Written in a clear and accessible style, this interdisciplinary text will be essential reading for all students of international relations.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, International Relations, War, Psychology

620 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Ahmed Gamal · Rating 2 out of 5]

يتناول موضوع مثير للاهتمام. اللغة جيدة، لكن يعيبه عدم تنظيم وترتيب في بعض الفصول.

[Muhammad al-Khwarizmi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a high opinion of this book, and the reason for that opinion is why I was not able to finish it. Greg Cashman seems just short of exhaustive in his analysis of what causes war and—though of course this is no fault of his own—this necessarily results in a frustrating litany of "...on the other hand" caveats. That is the state of the research. Fortunately, the work has at least started to inform any supervised or unsupervised machine learning I do on conflict datasets to try to categorize armed conflicts and/or see into the future a bit. For instance, I have been made especially aware of the dyadic nature of foreseeing conflict, and of the potential importance of changes of power balance over short time periods, which would possibly put a dynamical element in any models I come up with. In any case, while I am not going to go all the way through this book, I will keep it on hand as a useful reference.

[Ondřej Puczok · Rating 4 out of 5]

Čteno již podruhé (poprvé zkouška, teď státnice) a líbilo se mnohem víc. A až budu mít jednou mnoho času, třeba vybude i čas na rozšířenou verzi knihy.

[Eben · Rating 5 out of 5]

good book

[Yasmin Samy · Rating 2 out of 5]

كان كتاب ممل بالنسبالي ، شعرت انه انسب بكتيير للدارسين في هذه المجالات

[Grace Burgert]

I’m honestly weirdly obsessed with this textbook... 🤷🏽‍♀️