The Political Economy of War and Peace

cancer n. any malignant tumor . . . Metastasis may occur via the bloodstream or the lymphatic channels or across body cavities . . . setting up secondary tumors . . . Each individual primary tumor has its own pattern . . . There are probably many causative factors . . . Treatment. . . depends on the type of tumor, the site of the primary tumor and the extent of the spread. (Oxford Concise Medical Dictionary 1996, 97) Let us begin by stating the obvious. Acts of organized violence are not necessarily of human nature, but they are endogenous events arising within the an intrinsic part evolution of complex systems of social interaction. To be sure, all wars have features in common - people are killed and property is destroyed - but in their origin wars are likely to be at least as different as the social structures from which they arise. Consequently, it is unlikely that there can be a simple theory of the causes of war or the maintenance of peace. The fact that wars are historical events need not discourage us. On the contrary, we should focus our understanding of the dimensions of each conflict, or classes of conflict, on the conjuncture of causes at hand. It follows that the study of conflict must be an interdisciplinary one. It is or a penchant for eclecticism that leads to that conclusion, but the not humility multi-dimensionality of war itself. Front Matter....Pages i-xxi The Evolving National Security Strategy of the United States....Pages 1-28 Defining Terrorism....Pages 29-48 The Economic Consequences of the American Civil War....Pages 49-74 John Maynard Keynes Architect of the Postwar Peace....Pages 75-102 Dyads, Disputes and the Democratic Peace....Pages 103-126 Cooperation and Conflict among Democracies: Why Do Democracies Cooperate More and Fight Less?....Pages 127-154 In a World of Cannibals Everyone Votes for War: Democracy and Peace Reconsidered....Pages 155-176 Environmental Resource Scarcity and Conflict....Pages 177-199 Race, Rationality, and Behavior....Pages 201-222 The Long and the Short of an Arms Race....Pages 223-246 Theory of Moves and the Persian Gulf War....Pages 247-266 Moral Hazard and Conflict Intervention....Pages 267-285 A Model of Dispute Sequences....Pages 287-311 Back Matter....Pages 313-347 The Political Economy of War and Peace brings insights into the political and economic forces that shape the international, sub-national and ethnic conflicts of the present post-Cold War era. The larger vision is that war must be studied as a syndrome of historical events that occur as a conjuncture of contributing causes. Each study within this volume examines a facet of the conflict process. Taken together, these facets are more than their constituent parts: theoretical political and economical models, historical studies, environmental issues, military and strategic analysis and statistical estimations. War appears as an endogenous aspect of systems of social interaction. The point of the volume is not simply to be interdisciplinary for its own sake. It aims to shed light on the internal dynamics of war and to lead to public policy to alleviate or eliminate it The Political Economy of War and Peace brings insights into the political and economic forces that shape the international, sub-national and ethnic conflicts of the present Cold War era. The larger vision is that war must be studied as a syndrome of historical events that occur as a conjecture of contributing causes. Each study within this volume examines a facet of the conflict process. Taken together, these facets are more than their constituent parts: theoretical political and economic models, historical studies, environmental issues, military and strategic analysis and statistical estimations. War appears as an endogenous aspect of systems of social interaction. The point of the volume is not simply to be interdisciplinary for its own sake. It aims to shed light on the internal dynamics of war and to lead to public policy to alleviate or eliminate it.