Courses:

Causes and Prevention of War >> Content Detail



Study Materials



Readings

Amazon logo When you click the Amazon logo to the left of any citation and purchase the book (or other media) from Amazon.com, MIT OpenCourseWare will receive up to 10% of this purchase and any other purchases you make during that visit. This will not increase the cost of your purchase. Links provided are to the US Amazon site, but you can also support OCW through Amazon sites in other regions. Learn more.

The readings are also available by session. This course also has an extensive set of further readings.



Text


Amazon logo Haffner, Sebastian. The Meaning of Hitler. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979. ISBN: 9780297775720.

Amazon logo Ienaga, Saburo. The Pacific War, 1931-1945. New York, NY: Pantheon, 1979. ISBN: 9780394734965.

Amazon logo Iklé, Fred0297775723. Every War Must End. Revised ed. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780231076890.

Amazon logo Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Translated by Rex Warner. Baltimore, MD: Penguin, 1954. ISBN: 9780140440393.

Amazon logo Miller, Steven E., Sean M. Lynn-Jones, and Stephen Van Evera. Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War. Revised ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780691023496.

Amazon logo Stoessinger, John. Nations at Dawn. 6th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1994. ISBN: 9780070616264.

Amazon logo Lynn-Jones, Sean M., and Steven E. Miller, eds. The Cold War and After: Prospects for Peace. Expanded ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780262620888.

Amazon logo Rees, Martin. Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future in this Century - On Earth and Beyond. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2003. ISBN: 9780465068623.

I also recommend--but don't require--that students buy a copy of the following book that will improve your papers:

Amazon logo Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 6th ed. Rev. by John Grossman and Alice Bennett. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780226816272.

Turabian has the basic rules for formatting footnotes and other style rules. You will want to follow these rules so your writing looks spiffy and professional.



Readings by Session



Lec #topicsreadings
I. Introduction
1The causes of war in perspective. Does international politics follow regular laws of motion? If so, how can we discover them? Can we use methods like those of the physical sciences?
II. 33 Hypotheses on the Causes of War
2-38 Hypotheses on Military Factors as Causes of WarAmazon logo Ziegler, David. "Disarmament." Chapter 15 in War, Peace and International Politics. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1981, pp. 249-267. ISBN: 9780316984935.
A basic discussion of a modest proposal: tossing the weapons in the ocean. A good idea?

Schelling, Thomas C. "The Dynamics of Mutual Alarm." In Arms and Influence. New Haven, CT: Yale, 1966, pp. 221-251.
The classic statement of "stability theory," which frames the dangers that arise with a first-strike advantage.

Amazon logo Blainey, Geoffrey. "Dreams and Delusions of a Coming War." Chapter 3 in The Causes of War. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Free Press, 1988, pp. 35-56. ISBN: 9780029035917
False optimism as a cause of war.

Amazon logo Van Evera, Stephen. "Primed for Peace: Europe After the Cold War." In Cold War and After: Prospects for Peace. Edited by Sean M. Lynn Jones and Steven E. Miller. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993, pp. 193-203. ISBN: 9780262620888.
Note: these page are 20% of the article; much of the rest (pp. 204-236) is assigned over the next two weeks. Please focus for now on pages 193-203, which discuss the crucial matter of offense, defense, and war.

I include this article partly to clue you to my reflexes on the causes of war. Your skepticism is allowed.

For your optional delectation see also John Mueller's collection of predictions about war, "Various Shapes of Things to Come". Has our understanding of war made progress since the days of Henry Buckle, Randolph Bourne, and David Starr Jordan? And see also, for background, the data on war deaths from:

Sivard, Ruth. World Military and Social Expenditures 1987-88. Washington, DC: World Priorities, 28-31.
4-7Misperception and War; Religion and War

10 Hypotheses on Misperception and the Causes of War

Hypotheses from Psychology; Militarism; Nationalism; Spirals and Deterrence; Religion and War; Defects in Academe and the Press
Amazon logo Jervis, Robert. "Hypotheses on Misperception." In International Politics: Anarchy, Force, Political Economy, and Decision Making. 2nd ed. Edited by Robert J. Art and Robert Jervis. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co, 1985, pp. 510-526. ISBN: 9780316052399.
A classic discussion of the delusions to which states are prone. Is Jervis' list of myopias a good one? Do they arise from the psychological sources he stresses, or are other causes at work?

Amazon logo ———. Perception and Misperception in International Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976, pp. 58-84. ISBN: 9780691100494.
Some say conflict is best resolved by the carrot, while using the stick merely provokes; others would use the stick, warning that using the carrot ("appeasement") emboldens others to make more demands. Who's right? Probably both - but under what circumstances? and how can you tell which circumstances you are in?

Van Evera, Stephen. "Primed for Peace." pp. 204-211.

Hedges, Chris. "In Bosnia's Schools, 3 Ways Never to Learn From History," New York Times, November 25, 1997, p. A1.
It was once said that "war begins in the classroom." Is that such a silly notion? Do the Balkans' separate realities, and the Balkan wars of the 1990s, stem from separate and divergent teaching of the past?

Amazon logo Benjamin, Daniel, and Steven Simon. The Age of Sacred Terror. New York, NY: Random House, 2002, pp. 38-55, 61-68, 91-94, and 419-446. ISBN: 9780375508592.
Pages 38-55, 62-68, 91-94 describe the Islamist currents of thinking that spawned Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda's violence stems from a stream of Islamist thought going back to ibn Taymiyya, a bellicose Islamic thinker from the 13th century; to Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792), the harsh and rigid shaper of modern Saudi Arabian Islam; to Rashid Rida (1866-1935) and Hassan al-Banna (?-1949); and above all to Sayyid Qutb (?-1966), the shaper of modern Islamism. Taymiyya, al-Wahhab and Qutb are covered here. Covered also (pp. 91-94) is the frightening rise of apocalyptic thinking in the Islamic world. What causes the murderous thinking described here?

Pages 419-446 cover the phenomenon of millenarianism (apocalyptic thinking) in other religions--Judaism, Buddhism, and Christianity. This violent, even genocidal (globacidal?) form of religious thought has appeared widely in the last two decades. Why? How can it be tamed before it is used to justify great horrors?

Mishra, Pankaj. "The Other Face of Fanaticism," New York Times, February 2, 2003, Late edition.
The Hindu extremist movement of India is painted here, lest anyone think the Muslim world has a corner on murderous religious fanaticism.

Lampman, Jane. "Mixing Prophecy and Politics," Christian Science Monitor, July 7, 2004.
Christians of the premillennial dispensationalist perspective oppose an Israel-Palestinian peace settlement. Their larger objective: destroying the world.

Amazon logo Morgenthau, Hans J. "The Purpose of Political Science." In A Design for Political Science: Scope, Objectives, and Methods. Edited by James C. Charlesworth. Philadelphia, PA: American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1966, pp. 69-74. ISBN: 9780836917895.
Are scholars part of the solution or part of the problem? An eminent professor of international relations says his colleagues are gutless wonders who won't tell the state or society when they are wrong.

Pearson, David. "The Media and Government Deception." Propaganda Review (Spring 1989): 6-11.
Pearson thinks the American press is obedient to official views, and afraid to criticize. Anti-establishment paranoia or the real picture?
8-914 More Causes of War and Peace: Culture, Gender, Language, Democracy, Social Equality and Social Justice, Minority Rights and Human Rights, Prosperity, Economic Interdependence, Revolution, Capitalism, Imperial Decline and Collapse, Cultural Learning, Emotional Factors (Revenge, Contempt, Honor), Polarity of the International System

Causes of Civil War
Bellak, Leopold. "Why I Fear the Germans," (op-ed) New York Times, April 4, 1990, p. A29; and "Responses," New York Times, May 10, 1990, p. A30.
Germany has a flawed national character. Fair? If not, what explains past German conduct? If true, is this satisfying?

Harris, Louis. "The Gender Gulf," New York Times, December 7, 1990, p. A35.
The problem is: men? (Women are more dovish.)

Amazon logo Goldstein, Joshua S. "Feminism." In International Relations. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1993, pp. 282-295. ISBN: 9780065018646.
A good basic summary of feminist arguments on the causes of war.

Amazon logo Mearsheimer, John. "Back to the Future: Instability in Europe After the Cold War." In Cold War and After. Edited by Sean M. Lynn-Jones and Steven E. Miller. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993, pp. 147-155, 165-167, and 176-187. ISBN: 9780262620888.
Five theories of war-causation are discussed there. Note: you might skim the rest of the Mearsheimer article as well, to get his whole drift.

Van Evera. "Primed for Peace." pp. 211-236.
On the democracy and polarity questions, who is more persuasive, Mearsheimer or this guy?

Eriksson, Mikael, and Peter Wallensteen. "Armed Conflict 1989-2003." Journal of Peace Research 41, no. 5 (September 2004): 625-631.
Nearly all wars today are civil wars. The number of wars has declined sharply since 1990 - back down to the number observed in the mid-1970s, but still more than the number observed during 1946-76. Will these trends continue?

Amazon logo Brown, Michael E., ed. "Introduction." In The International Dimensions of Internal Conflict. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996, pp. 1-31. ISBN: 9780262522090.
A survey of hypotheses on the causes of internal conflict.
III. Cases: Wars and Crises
10The Seven Years WarAmazon logo Palmer, R. R., and Joel Colton. "The Great War of the Mid-Eighteenth Century." In A History of the Modern World. 7th ed. New York, NY: Knopf, 1991, pp. 273-285. ISBN: 9780679410140.
This is a standard textbook summary of events. Please focus on pp. 278-281, dealing with the outbreak of the Franco-British war.

Amazon logo Smoke, Richard. "The Seven Years War." In War: Controlling Escalation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978, pp. 195-236. ISBN: 9780674945951.
Smoke's chapter is a good historical synopses of this war. What general theories of war causes does his account support? How might this war have been prevented? By whom?
11The Wars of German Unification: 1864, 1866, and 1870; and Segue to World War IAmazon logo Ziegler, David. "The Wars for German Unification." Chapter 1 in War, Peace and IR. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1981, pp. 7-20. ISBN: 9780316984935.
A (very) basic history.
12-14World War IAmazon logo Palmer, R.R. and Colton, Joel. "The First World War." In History of the Modern World. 7th ed. New York, NY: Knopf, 1991, pp. 695-718. ISBN: 9780679410140.
This is assigned to provide basic background for non-aficionados of WWI.

Amazon logo Geiss, Imanuel. German Foreign Policy, 1871-1914. Boston, MA: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976, pp. vii-ix, 75-83, 106-181, and 206-207. ISBN: 9780710083036.
The key pages are pp. 121-127, 142-150, and 206-207 - focus on these pages and read the rest more lightly. (Make sure not to miss the tale of the War Council of 8 December 1912, including Admiral Müller's notes on the Council.) This book summarizes the views of the "Fischer School," which argues that German aggression was a prime cause of World War I. Others believe Fisher and Geiss blame Germany unduly. Who's right?

Amazon logo Strachan, Hew. The First World War. Vol. 1, To Arms. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 51 (bottom)-55 (bottom). ISBN: 9780198208778.
Strachan, an anti-Fischerite, thinks that the December 8 1912 War Council was no war council at all, but rather an indecisive bull session of sorts. Are his reasons persuasive?

Miller, ed. Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War. pp. xi-xix, 20-108.
A Europe-wide "Cult of the Offensive" caused the war; the militaries of Europe were responsible.

Amazon logo Kitchen, Martin. "The Army and the Idea of Preventive War," and "The Army and the Civilians." Chapters 5 and 6 in The German Officer Corps, 1890-1914. Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1968, pp. 96-142. ISBN: 9780198214670.
In Germany the army also purveyed the concept of preventive war, the notion that war was healthy and beneficial, and other exotic ideas; and within Germany it became a law unto itself - a "state within the state," in Gordon Craig's phrase.

Langsam, Walter Consuelo. "Nationalism and History in the Prussian Elementary Schools Under William II." In Nationalism and Internationalism: essays inscribed to Carlton J. H. Hayes. Edited by Edward Mead Earle. New York, NY: Columbia University Press 1950, pp. 241-260.
German elementary and high schools were channels of nationalist propaganda.

Amazon logo Joll, James. Origins of the First World War. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Longman, 1992, chapter 2, pp. 9-34. ISBN: 9780582089204.
A summary of the events of the strange and amazing July crisis.

For more on World War I origins see the World War I Document Archive.

And for more on the role of German public opinion in causing the war see specifically:

Amazon logo Mommsen, Wolfgang J. "Nationalism, Imperialism and Official Press Policy in Wilhelmine Germany 1850-1914." In Collection de l'Ecole Francaise de Rome, Opinion Publique et Politique Exterieure I 1870-1915. Milano: Universita de Milano/Ecole Francaise de Rome, 1981, pp. 367-383. ISBN: 9782728300327.
15Interlude: Hypotheses on Escalation and Limitation of War; and Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Strategy, other Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Causes of WarIklé, Fred. Every War Must End. pp. 1-105.
Can war be rationally conducted and controlled? This superb book makes you wonder.

Amazon logo Ziegler, David. "The Balance of Terror." In War, Peace and International Politics. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1981, pp. 221-234. ISBN: 9780316984935.
A basic rundown of the issues.

Amazon logo Rees, Martin. Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future in this Century - On Earth and Beyond. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2003, pp. 1-24, 41-60, and 73-88. ISBN: 9780465068623.
The advance of science has a fearsome byproduct: we are discovering ever more powerful means of destruction. These destructive powers are being democratized: the mayhem that only major states can do today may lie within the capacity of millions of individuals in the future unless we somehow change course. Deterrence works against states but will fail against crazed non-state organizations or individuals. How can the spread of destructive powers be controlled?

For more on controlling the longterm bioweapons danger see "Controlling Dangerous Pathogens: A Prototype Protective Oversight System." (a monograph by John Steinbruner and Elisa Harris.)

Kelly, Henry C. "Terrorism and the Biology Lab," New York Times, July 2, 2003.
The biology profession must realize that its research, if left unregulated, could produce discoveries that gravely threaten our safety. Biologists must develop a strategy to keep biology from being used for destructive ends.

For more on controlling the longterm bioweapons danger see "Controlling Dangerous Pathogens: A Prototype Protective Oversight System." (a monograph by John Steinbruner and Elisa Harris.)
16-19World War IIAmazon logo Palmer, R. R., and Joel Colton. A History of the Modern World. 7th ed. New York, NY: Knopf, 1991, pp. 798-799 and 822-849. ISBN: 9780679410140.
This is a basic standard history of the events leading up to the war.

Haffner, Sebastian. The Meaning of Hitler. pp. 3-165.

Amazon logo Herwig, Holger. "Clio Deceived: Patriotic Self-Censorship in Germany After the Great War." In Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War. Edited by Miller. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 262-301. ISBN: 9780691022321.
How Germans mis-remembered the origins and aftermath of the First World War.

Amazon logo Wette, Wolfram. "From Kellog to Hitler (1928-1933). German Public Opinion Concerning the Rejection or Glorification of War." In The German Military in the Age of Total War. Edited by Wilhelm Deist. Dover, NH: Berg, 1985, pp. 71-99. ISBN: 9780907582144.
How Germans came to love war again so soon after the Marne and Verdun. What explains the bizarre developments Wette describes?

Amazon logo Sagan, Scott. "The Origins of the Pacific War." In The Origins and Prevention of Major Wars. Edited by Robert I. Rotberg and Theodore K. Rabb. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1989, pp. 323-352. ISBN: 9780521379557.

Ienaga. The Pacific War 1931-1945. pp. vii-152, 247-256.
Was the Japanese decision for war a rational response to circumstances, or in some sense "irrational"? Ienaga and Sagan disagree - who's right?

Amazon logo Utley, Jonathan G. Going to War With Japan 1937-1941. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1985, pp. 151-156. ISBN: 9780870494451.

Amazon logo Heinrichs, Waldo. The Threshold of War: Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Entry into World War II. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1990, pp. 141-142, 177, and 246-247 (note 68). ISBN: 9780195061680.
Was the crucial American decision to cut off oil exports to Japan taken by a bureaucracy out of control? Utley and Heinrichs disagree. How can this mystery be unravelled?

Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah. "Letter to the Editor." New York Review of Books. February 6, 1997, p. 40.
A summary of Goldhagen's famous argument that Germany committed the holocaust because most Germans embraced an eliminationist anti-semitism. How could we test Goldhagen's argument?

Kristoff, Nicholas. "A Tojo Battles History, for Grandpa and for Japan," New York Times, April 22, 1999.
Mythmaking about Japan's role in World War II continues, stirring suspicion and anger elsewhere in Asia.
20-21The Cold War, Korea and IndochinaAmazon logo Paterson, Thomas G., J. Gary Clifford, and Kenneth Hagan. American Foreign Policy: A History Since 1900. Lexington, VA: D.C. Heath, 1983, pp. 471-480, 519-539, and 546-563. ISBN: 9780669045673.

Stoessinger, John. Nations at Dawn. pp. xi-119.
Paterson, et al. is a standard history; Stoessinger is interpretive.
22The Peloponnesian WarThucydides. The Peloponnesian War. pp. 35-108, 118-164, 212-223, 400-429, 483-488, and 516-538.
A famous history by a great strategist that many later readers, across many centuries, felt evoked their own times and tragedies.
23-24The Israel-Arab Conflict; the 2003 U.S.-Iraq WarAmazon logo Humphreys, R. Stephen. "The Arab Israeli Conflict." Between Memory and Desire: The Middle East in a Troubled Age. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999, pp. 46-59. ISBN: 9780520214118.
Arabs and Israelis both see themselves as victims, with tragic results.

Amazon logo Shlaim, Avi. "The Middle East: Origins of the Arab-Israeli Wars." In Explaining International Relations Since 1945. Edited by Ngaire Woods. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1996, pp. 219-236. ISBN: 9780198741961.
(skim 219-221, read 221-236.) Highlights of the Arab-Israeli wars of 1948, 1967, 1969-70, 1973, and 1982 and the Persian Gulf War of 1991 are outlined here.

Van Evera, Stephen. "Memory and the Israel-Palestinian Conflict: Time for New Narratives." Faculty Working Paper, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003.
Arabs and Israelis both see themselves as victims, and they are. But they see themselves as victims of each other, while their real victimizer is the Christian West. If they knew this they could better end their conflict.

Shavit, Ari. "Survival of the Fittest," Ha'aretz, January 14, 2004.
Shavit interviews Benny Morris, one of Israel's leading historians, on the realities and ethics of Israel's expulsion of 700,000-750,000 Palestinians during the 1948 war. In the past Morris led in exposing the expulsion; now he is a prominent defender of it, arguing that sometimes ethnic cleansing is necessary.

Bumiller, Elisabeth. "Was a Tyrant Prefigured by Baby Saddam?" New York Times, May 15, 2004.
Saddam Hussein was severely abused as a child and as a result suffered narcissism and other personality disorders. Does this help explain the 1991 and 2003 Iraq wars? Can the U.S. deter or coerce such people if it better understands their personal demons?

Amazon logo Stoessinger, John G. Why Nations Go To War. 9th ed. Belmont, CA: Thompson Wadsworth, 2004, pp. 273-308. ISBN: 9780534631475.
An account of the 2003 U.S.-Iraq war.
IV. The Future of War
25-26Testing and Applying Theories of War Causation; the Future of War, Solutions to WarKaysen, Carl. "Is War Obsolete?" In Cold War and After. Edited by Sean M. Lynn-Jones. pp. 81-103.
Kaysen says past causes of war are already gone. But if he's right, why does war continue?

Amazon logo Ziegler, David. "World Government," and "Collective Security." Chapters 8, and 11 in War, Peace and IR. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1981, pp. 127-45, 179-203. ISBN: 9780316984935.
Many people have offered these answers. Do you think they would work? (Why haven't they been implemented yet?)

Nitze, Paul. "A Threat Mostly to Ourselves," New York Times, October 28, 1999, p. A25.
A call for nuclear disarmament from a prominent Cold War hawk. (In 1950 Nitze wrote NSC-68, the guiding plan for America's great Cold War military buildup.)

Amazon logo Huntington, Samuel P. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1996, pp. 209-218 and 254-266. ISBN: 9780684811642.
("Islam and the West," and "Islam's Bloody Borders.")

Amazon logo Review again Benjamin and Simon. Age of Sacred Terror. New York, NY: Random House, 2002, 38-55, 61-68, 91-94, and 419-446. ISBN: 9780375508592.

Review again Rees, Our Final Hour, pp. 41-60, and 73-88 (assigned above.)

Bush, George W. "Second Inaugural Address." Inauguration, Washington, DC, January 20, 2005.
President Bush announces a U.S. policy of promoting freedom and liberty, on grounds that "as long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny... violence will gather and multiply in destructive power, and cross the most defended borders, and raise a mortal threat.... The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom."
Final Exam



Further Readings




The Causes of War


The causes of war, general and theoretical works:

Blainey, Geoffrey. The Causes of War. New York, NY: Free Press, 1973.

Bramson, Leon, and George W. Goethals, eds. War: Studies from Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology. Revised ed. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1968.

Brodie, Bernard. "Some Theories on the Causes of War." In War and Politics. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1973, pp. 276-340.

Cashman, Greg. What Causes War? An Introduction to Theories of International Conflict. New York, NY: Lexington Books, 1999.

Dougherty, James E., and Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr. Contending Theories of International Relations: A Comprehensive Survey. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1990. Parts.

Falk, Richard A., and Samuel S. Kim. The War System: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980.

Kagan, Donald. On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1994.

Kurtz, Lester, ed. Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict. 3 vols. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1999.

Amazon logo Levy, Jack. "The Causes of War: A Review of Theories." In Behavior, Society, and Nuclear War. 2 vols. Edited by Philip E. Tetlock, Jo L. Husbands, Robert Jervis, Paul C. Stern, and Charles Tilly. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1989, 1990, pp. 1:209-333. ISBN: 9780195057652.

Levy, Jack S. "The Causes of War and the Conditions of Peace." In Annual Review of Political Science. Vol. 1. 1998, pp. 139-165.

Midlarsky, Manus I., ed. Handbook of War Studies. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman, 1989.

Rotberg, Robert I., and Theodore K. Rabb, eds. The Origins and Prevention of Major Wars. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Waltz, Kenneth N. Man, the State, and War. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1954.



Arms and War


Borg, Marlies Ter. "Reducing Offensive Capabilities - the Attempt of 1932." Journal of Peace Research 29, no. 2 (1992): 145-160.

Jervis, Robert. "Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma." World Politics (January 1978): 167-214.

Levy, Jack S. "Declining Power and the Preventive Motivation for War." World Politics 40, no. 1 (October 1987): 82-107.

Lynn-Jones, Sean M. "Offense-Defense Theory and its Critics." Security Studies 4, no. 4 (Summer 1995): 660-694.

Schelling, Thomas. Arms and Influence. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1966. Parts.

Schelling, Thomas, and Morton Halperin. Strategy and Arms Control. New York, NY: Twentieth Century Fund, 1961. Parts.



Misperception


Janis, Irving L. Victims of Groupthink. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1972.

Amazon logo Jervis, Robert. "War and Misperception." In The Origins and Prevention of Major Wars. Edited by Robert I. Rotberg and Theodore K. Rabb. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1989, pp. 101-126. ISBN: 9780521379557.

———. "Hypotheses on Misperception." World Politics 20, no. 3 (April 1968): 454-479. Also reprinted in Power, Action and Interaction. Edited by George H. Quester. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1971, pp. 104-132.

May, Ernest R. "'Lessons' of the Past: The Use and Misuse of History in American Foreign Policy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1973.

Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Self-Evaluating Organization." Public Administration Review. September/October 1972, pp. 509-520.



Gender and War


Amazon logo Goldstein, Joshua S. War and Gender. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780521807166.

Cohn, Carol. "Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals." Signs 12, no. 4 (Summer 1987): 687-718. Within and Without: Women, Gender, and Theory.

Forcey, Linda Rennie. "Feminist and Peace Perspectives on Women." In Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict. 3 vols. Edited by Lester Kurtz. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1999, pp. 2:13-20. ISBN: 0122270118.

Amazon logo Held, Virginia. "Gender as an Influence on Cultural Norms Relating to War and the Environment." In Cultural Norms, War and the Environment. Edited by Arthur H. Westing. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988, pp. 44-51. ISBN: 9780198291251.

Hunter, Anne E., ed. On Peace, War, and Gender: A Challenge to Genetic Explanations. New York, NY: The Feminist Press, 1991.

Ruddick, Sara. Maternal Thinking: Toward a Politics of Peace. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1995.

Tessler, Mark, Jodi Nachtwey, and Audra Grant. "Further Tests of the Women and Peace Hypothesis: Evidence from Cross-National Survey Research in the Middle East." International Studied Quarterly 43, no. 3 (September 1999): 519-532.

Amazon logo Turpin, Jennifer. "Women and War." In Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict. 3 vols. Edited by Lester Kurtz. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1999, pp. 3:801-813. ISBN: 9780122270109.

Zalewski, Marysia, and Jane Parpart, eds. The "Man" Question in International Relations. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1997.



Militarism


Berghahn, Volker R. Militarism: The History of an International Debate, 1861-1979. New York, NY: St. Martins, 1982.

Brodie, Bernard. War and Politics. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1973, pp. 479-496.

Bucholz, Arden. "Militarism." In Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict. 3 vols. Edited by Lester Kurtz. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1999, pp. 2:423-433. ISBN: 0122270118.

Burk, James. "Military Culture." In Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict. 3 vols. Edited by Lester Kurtz. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1999, pp. 2:447-462. ISBN: 0122270118.

Cobden, Richard, ed. "The Three Panics." In Political Writings of Richard Cobden. London, UK: 1887.

Heise, Juergen Arthur. Minimum Disclosure: How the Pentagon Manipulates the News. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1979.

McLauchlan, Gregory. "Military-Industrial Complex, Contemporary Significance." In Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict. 3 vols. Edited by Lester Kurtz. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1999, pp. 2:475-486. ISBN: 0122270126.

Amazon logo Rourke, Francis E. Bureaucracy and Foreign Policy. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972, pp. 18-40. ISBN: 9780801813993.

Shearer, Derek. "The Pentagon Propaganda Machine." In The Pentagon Watchers. Edited by Leonard Rodberg and Derek Shearer. New York, NY: Anchor, 1970, pp. 99-142.

Vagts, Alfred. Defense and Diplomacy: The Soldier and the Conduct of Foreign Relations. New York, NY: Kings Crown, 1956, pp. 263-377 and 477-490.

See also representative writings on war and international affairs by military officers, e.g., Friedrich von Bernhardi, Ferdinand Foch, Giulio Douhet, Nathan Twining, Thomas Powers, and Curtis LeMay.



Nationalism - General Works


Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Revised ed. London, UK: Verso, 1991.

Van Evera, Stephen. "Hypotheses on Nationalism and War." International Security 18, no. 4 (Spring 1994): 5-39.

Gellner, Ernest. Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Greenfeld, Liah. Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Hobsbawm, E. J. Nations and Nationalism Since 1780. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Posen, Barry R. "Nationalism, the Mass Army, and Military Power." International Security 18, no. 2 (Fall 1993): 80-124.

Smith, Anthony D. The Ethnic Origins of Nations. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell, 1986.

———. Theories of Nationalism. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1983.

Snyder, Louis L. Encyclopedia of Nationalism. New York, NY: Paragon House, 1990.



Ingroup-Outgroup Dynamics


Sherif, Muzafer, and Carolyn W. Sherif. Groups in Harmony and Tension: An Integration of Studies on Intergroup Relations. New York, NY: Octagon Books, 1966.

Coser, Lewis A. The Functions of Social Conflict. New York, NY: Free Press, 1966.



Nationalist Mythmaking


Dance, E. H. History the Betrayer: A Study in Bias. London, UK: Hutchinson, 1960.

Fitzgerald, Frances. America Revised: History Schoolbooks in the Twentieth Century. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1979.

Hayes, Carlton J. H. "The Propagation of Nationalism." In Essays on Nationalism. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1926, pp. 61-92.

Kennedy, Paul M. "The Decline of Nationalistic History in the West, 1900-1970." Journal of Contemporary History 8, no. 1 (January 1973): 77-100.

Lewis, Bernard. History: Remembered, Recovered, Invented. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975.

Shafer, Boyd C. Faces of Nationalism. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972.

Amazon logo Zinn, Howard. The Politics of History. Boston, MA: Beacon, 1970, pp. 5-34 and 288-319. ISBN: 9780807054505.



Democratic Peace Theory, Dictatorial Peace Theory


Andreski, Stanislav. "On the Peaceful Disposition of Military Dictatorships." Journal of Strategic Studies 3, no. 3 (December 1980): 3-10.

Amazon logo Brown, Michael E., Sean M. Lynn- Jones and Steven E. Miller, eds. Debating the Democratic Peace: An International Security Reader. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780262522137.

Gleditsch, Nils Petter. "Peace and Democracy." In Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict. 3 vols. Edited by Lester Kurtz. San Diego: Academic Press, 1999, pp. 2:643-652. ISBN: 0122270126.

Maoz, Zeev, and Bruce Russett. "Normative and Structural Causes of Democratic Peace, 1946-1986." American Political Science Review 87, no. 3 (September 1993): 624-638.

Russett, Bruce, William Anholis, Carol R. Ember, Melvin Ember, and Zeev Maoz. Grasping the Democratic Peace: Principles for a Post-Cold War World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993.



Human Instinct Theories of War


Brown, Seyom. Causes and Prevention of War. 2nd ed. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1994, pp. 9-15.

Amazon logo Dougherty, James E., and Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr. Contending Theories of International Relations. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1997, pp. 274-288. ISBN: 9780060417062.

Freud, Sigmund. "Why War?" In Leon Bramson and George W. Goethals, eds., War: Studies from Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, rev. ed. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1968. pp. 71-80.

James, William. "The Moral Equivalent of War." In War: Studies from Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology. Revised ed. Edited by Leon Bramson and George W. Goethals. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1968, pp. 21-31.

Amazon logo Kim, Samuel S. "The Lorenzian Theory of Aggression and Peace Research: A Critique." In The War System: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Edited by Richard A. Falk and Samuel S. Kim. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980, pp. 82-115. ISBN: 9780865310421.

Amazon logo McDougall, William. "The Instinct of Pugnacity." In The War System: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Edited by Richard A. Falk and Samuel S. Kim. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980, pp. 33-43. ISBN: 9780865310421.

Amazon logo Mead, Margaret. "Warfare is Only an Invention, Not a Biological Necessity." In The War System: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Edited by Richard A. Falk and Samuel S. Kim. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980, pp. 269-274. ISBN: 9780865310421.

Somit, Albert. "Humans, Chimps, and Bonobos: The Biological Bases of Aggression, War, and Peacemaking." Journal of Conflict Resolution 34, no. 3 (September 1990): 553-582.

Waltz, Kenneth N. Man, the State, and War. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1954, pp. 16-79.



Religion and War


Amazon logo Freedman, David Noel, and Michael J. McClymond. "Religious Traditions, Violence, and Nonviolence." In Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict. Vol. 3. Edited by Lester Kurtz. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1999, pp. 229-239. ISBN: 9780122270109.
A survey of the problem of religion and war.

Huntington, Samuel P. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1996. ISBN: 0684811642.

Amazon logo Spencer, Robert, and David Pryce-Jones. Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions about the World's Fastest-Growing Faith. San Francisco, CA: Encounter Books, 2002. ISBN: 9781893554580.



Civil War, its Control


Amazon logo Stedman, Stephen John, Donald Rothchild, and Elizabeth M Cousens, eds. Ending Civil Wars: The Implementation of Peace Agreements. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2002. ISBN: 9781588260833.

Amazon logo Henderson, Errol A. "Civil Wars." In Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict. 3 vols. Edited by Lester Kurtz. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1999, pp. 1:279-288. ISBN: 9780122270109.

Amazon logo ———. "Ethnic Conflict and Cooperation," In Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict. 3 vols. Edited by Lester Kurtz. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1999, pp. 1:751-764. ISBN: 9780122270109.

Kumar, Radha. "The Troubled History of Partition." Foreign Affairs 76, no. 1 (January/February 1997): 22-34.

Montville, Joseph V., ed. Conflict and Peacemaking in Multiethnic Societies. New York, NY: Lexington Books, 1991.

Sisk, Timothy D. Power Sharing and International Mediation in Ethnic Conflicts. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 1996.



Negotiation and Diplomacy


Cohen, Raymond. "The Rules of the Game in International Politics." International Studies Quarterly 24, no. 1 (March 1980): 129-50.

Fisher, Roger. International Conflict for Beginners. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1969.

Fisher, Roger, and William Ury. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1981.

George, Alexander L. Forceful Persuasion: Coercive Diplomacy as an Alternative to War. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 1991.

Iklé, Fred Charles. How Nations Negotiate. Millwood, NY: Kraus Reprint, 1982, first publication 1964.

Nicolson, Harold. Diplomacy. London, UK: Oxford University Press, 1964.



Mediation


Bercovitch, Jacob, and David Wells. "Evaluating Mediation Strategies: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis." Peace and Change 18, no. 1 (January 1993): 3-25, and works cited therein.

Princen, Thomas. Intermediaries in International Conflict. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.



Limited War


Etzold, Thomas. "Clausewitzian Lessons for Modern Strategists." Air University Review (May/June 1980).

Smoke, Richard. War: Controlling Escalation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977.

For more references, see Smoke's bibliography.



Arms Races


Cashman, Greg. What Causes War? pp. 172-184.

Amazon logo Huntington, Samuel P. "Arms Races: Prerequisites and Results." In The Use of Force. 3rd ed. Edited by Robert J. Art and Kenneth N. Waltz. New York, NY: University Press of America, 1988, pp. 637-670. ISBN: 9780819170033.

Sample, Susan G. "Arms Races and Dispute Escalation: Resolving the Debate?" Journal of Peace Research 34, no. 1 (February 1997): 7-22.



Historical Sources


General surveys of global international history include:

Gay, Peter, and R. K. Webb. Modern Europe. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1973.

Palmer, Robert R., and Joel Colton. A History of the Modern World. 7th ed. New York, NY: Knopf, 1991.

Ropp, Theodore. War in the Modern World. New York, NY: Collier, 1962.

For more sources see the bibliography in Palmer and Colton. Another excellent bibliographic source is War and Society Newsletter: A Bibliographical Survey. Edited by Jürgen Förster, David French, David Stevenson and Russel Van Wyk. Munich: Militärgeschlichtliches Forschungsamt, annual since 1973; it lists articles and book chapters relevant to international relations and war.

General surveys of European international history:

Albrecht-Carrie, Rene. A Diplomatic History of Europe Since the Congress of Vienna. Revised ed. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1973.

Hayes, Carlton J. H. Contemporary Europe Since 1870. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1962.

Joll, James. Europe Since 1870: An International History. 4th ed. London, UK: Penguin, 1990.

Taylor, A. J. P. Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848-1914. London, UK: Oxford, 1971.

Also pertinent are the relevant books in four series of general histories:

The "Langer" series, published by Harper Torchbooks, 15-odd volumes covering western history since 1200, under the general editorship of William Langer (e.g. Sontag, Raymond. A Broken World, 1919-1939.)

The Longman's "General History of Europe" series, covering western history since Roman times, published by Longman, under the general editorship of Denys Hays (e.g. Roberts, J. M. Europe 1880-1945.)

The Fontana "History of Europe" series, published by Fontana/Collins, covering history since the middle ages, under the general editorship of J.H. Plumb (e.g. Grenville, J. A. S. Europe Reshaped, 1848-78.)

The "New Cambridge Modern History" and "Cambridge Ancient History" series, covering western history from the beginning.



The Seven Years War


An overview:

Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.

On the Franco-British conflict in the Seven Years War:

Black, Jeremy. The Origins of War in Early Modern Europe. Edinburgh: J. Donald, 1987.

Higonnet, Patrice. "The Origins of the Seven Years War." Journal of Modern History 40 (1968): 57-90.

On the Prussian-Austrian-Russian-French war of 1756:

Gaxotte, Pierre. Frederick the Great. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1942, pp. 175-229 and 303-342.

Reiners, Ludwig. Frederick the Great. New York, NY: Putnam, 1960, pp. 89-121 and 147-164.

Amazon logo Ritter, Gerhard. Frederick the Great. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1975, pp. 73-148. ISBN: 9780520027756.



The Crimean War


Goldfrank, David M. The Origins of the Crimean War. New York, NY: Longman, 1994.

Palmer, Alan. The Banner of Battle: The Story of the Crimean War. New York, NY: St. Martin's, 1987.

Rich, Norman. Why the Crimean War? A Cautionary Tale. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1985.

Amazon logo Smoke, Richard. "The Crimean War." In War: Controlling Escalation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978, pp. 147-194. ISBN: 9780674945951.



The Italian Wars of Independence


Coppa, Frank J. The Origins of the Italian Wars of Independence. New York, NY: Longman, 1992.



The Wars of German Unification


Carr, William. The Origins of the Wars of German Reunification. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1991.

Amazon logo Craig, Gordon. The Politics of the Prussian Army, 1640-1945. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1964, pp. 180-216. ISBN: 9780195002577.

Amazon logo Smoke, Richard. War: Controlling Escalation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978, pp. 80-146. ISBN: 9780674945951.



World War I


Basic histories include:

Berghahn, V. R. Germany and the Approach of War in 1914. London, UK: Macmillan, 1973.

Geiss, Imanuel. German Foreign Policy 1871-1914. London, UK: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976.

Joll, James. The Origins of the First World War. New York, NY: Longman, 1984.

Lieven, D. C. B. Russia and the Origins of the First World War. New York, NY: St. Martin's, 1983.

Tuchman, Barbara. The Guns of August. New York, NY: Dell, 1962.

Turner, L. C. F. Origins of the First World War. London, UK: Arnold, 1970.

Suveys of debates about the war's origins are:

Ferguson, Niall. "Germany and the Origins of the First World War: New Perspectives." Historical Journal 35 (September 1992): 725-52.

Langdon, John W. July 1914: The Long Debate, 1918-1990. New York, NY: St. Martin's, 1991.

Moses, John A. The Politics of Illusion: The Fischer Controversy In German Historiography. London, UK: George Prior, 1975.

Other sources on the origins of the war include:

Albertini, Luigi. The Origins of the War of 1914. 3 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980.
Reprint of 1952-1957 edition. Albertini is chaotic, but essential reading for those researching World War I.

Fischer, Fritz. War of Illusions. New York, NY: Norton, 1975.

Geiss, Imanuel, ed. July 1914: The Outbreak of the First World War: Selected Documents. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1967.

Herwig, Holger H., ed. The Outbreak of World War I: Causes and Responsibilities. 5th ed. Revised. Lexington, MA: DC Heath, 1991.

Jarausch, Konrad H. The Enigmatic Chancellor: Bethmann Hollweg and the Hubris of Imperial Germany. New Haven, CT: Yale, 1973.

Amazon logo Röhl, John C. G. The Kaiser and his Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 162-190. ISBN: 9780521402231.
(on the German "war council" of December 8, 1912 and related matters.)

Schmitt, Bernadotte E. The Coming of the War: 1914. 2 vols. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1930.

Contemporary descriptions of the political climate in Germany are:

Hull, Isabel. The Military Entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II 1888-1918. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Archer, William., ed. 501 Gems of German Thought. London, UK: T. Fisher Unwin, 1916.

Bang, J. P. Hurrah and Hallelujah: The Teaching of Germany's Prophets, Professors and Preachers. New York, NY: Doran, 1917.

Notestein, Wallace. Conquest and Kultur: Aims of Germans in Their Own Words. Washington, DC: Committee on Public Information, 1917.

Thayer, William Roscoe, ed. Out Of Their Own Mouths. New York, NY: Appleton, 1917.

Other works on themes pertinent to this course include:

Brodie, Bernard. War and Politics. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1973, pp. 1-28.

Clarke, I. F. Voices Prophesying War. London, UK: Oxford University Press, 1966.

Coetzee, Marilyn Shevin. The German Army League: Popular Nationalism in Wilhelmine Germany. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Craig, Gordon. The Politics of the Prussian Army, 1640-1945. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1964, pp. 217-341.

Ritter, Gerhard. The Sword and the Scepter: The Problem of Militarism in Germany. 4 vols. Coral Gables, FL: University of Miami Press, 1969-73.

———. The Schlieffen Plan: Critique of a Myth. 









© 2010-2021 OpenCollege.com, All Rights Reserved.
Open College is a service mark of AmeriCareers LLC.