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Causes of War:

Power and the Roots of Conflict
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Cornell University Press, 1999 - Political Science - 270 pages

What causes war? How can military conflicts best be prevented? In this book, Stephen Van Evera frames five conditions that increase the risk of interstate war: false optimism about the likely outcome of a war, a first-strike advantage, fluctuation in the relative power of states, circumstances that allow nations to parlay one conquest into another, and circumstances that make conquest easy.

According to Van Evera, all but one of these conditions—false optimism—rarely occur today, but policymakers often erroneously believe in their existence. He argues that these misperceptions are responsible for many modern wars, and explores both World Wars, the Korean War, and the 1967 Mideast War as test cases. Finally, he assesses the possibility of nuclear war by applying all five hypotheses to its potential onset. Van Evera's book demonstrates that ideas from the Realist paradigm can offer strong explanations for international conflict and valuable prescriptions for its control.

  

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Read this only if you're interested in love letters to Bush foreign policy. Read full review

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Contents

Illusions of the Coming War
14
FirstMove Advantages and Crisis Instability
35
Windows of Opportunity and Vulnerability
73
Cumulative Resources
105
Offense Defense and the Security Dilemma
117
Predictions and Tests of OffenseDefense Theory
166
How Much History Can OffenseDefense Theory Explain?
185
OffenseDefense Theory and the Outbreak of World War I
193
The Nuclear Revolution and the Causes of War
240
Conclusion
255
Index
263
Copyright

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References from web pages

March 1, 2001 // 17.423 // Causes and Prevention of War Van Evera ...
March 1, 2001 // 17.423 // Causes and Prevention of War. Van Evera, Gabbitas and Lejlic. MORE CAUSES OF WAR AND PEACE:. Culture, Gender, Language, Democracy ...
web.mit.edu/ 17.423/ www/ More%20Causes.PDF

JSTOR: Causes of War: Power and the Roots of Conflict
Causes of War: Power and the Roots of Conflict. By Stephen Van Evera. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999. Pp. 270. $35.00.) Stephen Van Evera's new ...
links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0022-3816(200011)62%3A4%3C1259%3ACOWPAT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T

Stephen Van Evera, Causes of War: Power and the Roots of Conflict ...
Stephen Van Evera, Causes of War: Power and the Roots of Conflict , Ch. 6 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999). Causal Argument ...
www.people.fas.harvard.edu/ ~goodrich/ IRnotes/ Week07/ Van_Evra_CHAPTER6_summary.pdf

CAUSES OF WAR
Causes of War: Power and the Roots of Conflict. Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1999. 270 p. Book call no.: 355.027 V252c. Wilmer, Franke. ...
www.au.af.mil/ au/ aul/ bibs/ cause/ causewar.htm

Government 491: Causes of War Syllabus Government Department ...
Stephen Van Evera, Causes of War: Power and the Roots of Conflict (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999). These will be referred to as Betts, Blainey, ...
www.sais-jhu.edu/ centers/ cse/ syllabi/ Lindley_CW.pdf

PSCI 5053
PSCI 5053/7053. The Causes of War. Professor Daniel W. Drezner. Fall 1998. Course Objectives and Requirements. The goal of this course is to address the ...
www.danieldrezner.com/ teaching/ PSCI5053.doc

MIT opencourseware | Political Science | 17.423 Causes and ...
Introduction. 1, The causes of war in perspective. Does international politics follow regular laws of motion? If so, how can we discover them? ...
mit-ocw.eng.chula.ac.th/ OcwWeb/ Political-Science/ 17-423Causes-and-Prevention-of-WarSpring2001/ Calendar/ index.htm

Tentative Syllabus - University of Colorado Fall 2003 PSCI 5053 ...
Tentative Syllabus. -. University of Colorado. Fall 2003. PSCI 5053/7053. War, Peace and Strategy. Graduate Seminar. Professor: Colin Dueck ...
polsci.colorado.edu/ cursyl/ Fall2003_PSCI5053.pdf

WAR, PEACE, AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS INR ...
1. WAR, PEACE, AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. INR 5062. Spring 2007. Tuesday 9h:30-12h:15. Classroom: PC 445. Félix E. Martín, Ph.D. ...
www.fiu.edu/ ~intlrel/ syllabi_2007/ INR5062_martin.pdf

INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT
Steven Van Evera, Causes of War: Power and the Roots of Conflict (Cornell, 1999). Kenneth N. Waltz, Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysis ...
fhss.byu.edu/ polsci/ Faculty/ HyerE/ 378/ Hyer_378_06.pdf

About the author (1999)

Stephen Van Evera is Ford International Professor in the Political Science Department at MIT.

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