ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces concepts and theories employed in understanding causes of war and the changing nature of global violence. It introduces sources of war, beginning with interstate war and followed by intrastate, or civil, wars. The chapter also describes the utility of military capabilities, notably strategies of deterrence and compellence. There are many purposes for which actors may use military force. Game theory Game theory’s simplification of complex choices can be helpful to understand how actors’ choices are interdependent and why cooperation can be so difficult. Real people, with passions, ambitions, and physical and psychological limitations, make decisions. The bureaucratic-politics model suggests that government agencies compete with one another for prestige, larger staffs, and budgets and recommend policies that increase their status and resources. Recent decades have marked a shift in the nature of war with an increase in civil wars. The strategy of territorial division removes some of the immediate causes of such wars, including ethnic cleansing.
