What Causes War? An Introduction to Theories of International Conflict

This text presents a comprehensive survey of the many alternative theories that attempt to explain the causes of interstate war. For each theory, the author 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? The author examines theories of war at the individual, substate, nation-state, dyadic, and international systems level of analysis.