The Origin and Prevention of Major Wars

by Edited by Robert I. Rotberg , Theodore K. Rabb , With contributions by Robert Gilpin , John F. Guilmartin , Myron P. Gutmann , Jeffrey L. Hughes , Robert Jervis , Jack S. Levy , Charles S. Maier , Bruce Bueno de Mesquita , Joseph S. Nye , George H. Queste

• ISBN13: 9780521379557
• ISBN10: 0521379555
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1989-02-24
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Since the development of the modern state system in Europe four centuries ago, there have been ten general wars involving a majority of the major powers and a high level of casualties. Another major war is difficult to conceive of, since it would presumably be the last such conflict, and yet it is not an impossibility. In this volume a distinguished group of political scientists and historians examine the origins of major wars and discuss the problems in preventing a nuclear war.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Old wars and future wars: causation and prevention Joseph S. Nye, Jr

The Origins of War: Structural Theories

The theory of hegemonic war

The origins of war in neorealist theory

The contribution of expected utility theory to the study of international conflict Bruce

The Origins of War: Explanation of Non-rational Causality

Domestic politics and war

War and misperception

Crises and the unexpected

Lessons and Analogies from Early Major Wars

Ideology and conflict: the wars of the Ottoman Empire 1453-1606

The origins of the thirty years' war

The origins, causes and extension of the wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon

Lessons and Analogies from the World Wars

The origins of World War I

Wargames: 1914-1919

The Origins of World War II in Europe: British deterrence failure and German expansionism

The origins of the Pacific War

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