ABSTRACT

Investigation into the causes of international conflict has in many ways formed the central locus of the early work in the scientific investigation of world politics. This edited volume contains the most recent quantitative work in this area, reflecting the current state of the field in the topics addressed, the data utilized and the methods employed.

The book is divided into three parts, presenting first some recent contributions to the work on the causes of international conflict, set in the context of realist theories. The second part addresses issues relating to data, methods and cases used to analyze international conflict, while the third part presents some examples of the use of a variety of different methods to answer questions relating to issues which engage international relations scholars today. The chapters focus on a variety of pertinent topics, and include discussions of important innovations in our ability to analyze conflict, such as the introduction of the Militarized Interstate Dispute (MID) data.

chapter |7 pages

Introduction

part I|55 pages

Contributions to the understanding of the causes of conflict

part II|97 pages

How to study conflict

chapter 4|27 pages

The MID 3 data set, 1993–2001

Procedures, coding rules, and description

chapter 5|28 pages

Danger beyond dyads

Third-party participants in militarized interstate disputes

chapter 6|23 pages

Dangerous dyads revisited

Democracies may not be that peaceful after all 1

chapter 7|17 pages

Assessing the dyadic approach to interstate conflict processes

A.K.A. “dangerous” dyad-years

part III|84 pages

Conflict, survival, and political issues

chapter 8|21 pages

Was Leo Durocher right?

Do “nice states” finish last?

chapter 9|17 pages

Balancing against extinction

Alliance politics among non-state actors

chapter 11|25 pages

Negotiations, guns, and money

Do constrained leaders do better?