Causes of War

Question 1

what are the types of war

Answer 1

-hegemonic
-interstate
-general/major
-limited
-total
-extra-state
-MID

Question 2

what are the immediate causes of war

Answer 2

-economic resources
-policy disagreements
-political regime
-ethnic identity
-territory

Question 3

what are the underlying causes of war- individual level

Answer 3

-misperceptions
-groupthink
-overoptimism

Question 4

what are the underlying causes of war- state level

Answer 4

-economic system
-nationalism
-political institutions

Question 5

what are the underlying causes of war- international level

Answer 5

-anarchy as a permissive condition for war
-anarchy as a propellant of conflict

Question 6

what is a commitment problem

Answer 6

a state’s fear that any diplomatic agreement it reaches with an adversary to stave off a war might be violated at some point in the future when that adversary is in a position to be more deadly and demanding
- arises due to the anarchic nature of the int.system
-Given absence of higher authority, states must fear that any diplomatic agreement they reach with an adversary to stave off a war might be violated at some point in future
-In those circumstances, 1 or both sides might decide it might be better to fight today rather than be cheated upon and attacked at a moment of weakness in the future

Question 7

what is the prisoners dilemma

Answer 7

An analytical device from game theory used to model certain instances of state behaviour
It illustrates how 2 actors can fail to achieve mutually beneficial cooperation and end in mutually costly non-cooperation. They face a particular combination of payoffs- they do well by cooperating with each other, but even better by cheating, and they do the worst if they are cheated upon. Because they lack some over-arching mechanism to ensure they faithfully comply with an agreement, they end up doing a lot worse than if they cooperated with each other.

Question 8

what is the private information problem

Answer 8

• the tendency of states to overstate their resolve and capabilities during a diplomatic or military crisis because there’s no int.authority to force states to reveal their true prefs, intentions and capabilities.
  -This tendency can make a diplomatic situation more difficult to obtain and war more likely
  -Due to virtue of each side pressing too hard with threats and counter threats

Question 9

what is power transition theory

Question 10

what are Kondratieff waves

Question 11

what is the bargaining model of war

Answer 11

a method of representing the potential gains&losses& ultimate outcome of war between 2 actors as a bargaining interaction
-in the model, war between rational actors is possible due to incomplete info, commitment problems and issue individisiblity
- a means of explaining war as a political action
-a bargaining disagreement over allocation of resources

Question 12

why does bargaining fail

Answer 12

incomplete information
commitment problems
issue indivisibility

Question 13

what is a security dilemma

Question 14

what are WMDs

Question 15

what is the nuclear triad

Answer 15

-strategic bombers
-intercontinental ballistic missiles
- submarine-launched ballistic missiles

Question 16

what are the effects of nuclear weapons by one nuclear state

Question 17

what are the effects of nuclear weapons by 2 nuclear powers

Question 18

what is MAD

Question 19

an example of the private info problem

Answer 19

after President Hussein was defeated in 1st Iraq war, he sought to maintain power at home and security abroad by seeming to have nuclear weapons program and taking actions that seemed to be directed at hiding Iraq’s nuclear weapons activities from western intelligence agencies and the (IAEA) int. Atomic energy agency
Even though he had ceased efforts to develop a nuclear military capability, US and British intelligence services were convinced he was going for the bomb- the only way to get rid of iraq’s supposed nuclear threat was to invade and destory hussein’s regime

Question 20

an example of the prisoners dilemma

Answer 20

Iraq and US and the lead up to war in 2003- prior to the outbreak of hostilities, the 2 sides might have considered a deal (iraq would refrain from any future nuclear weapons programs and the US would agree not to invade the country and to lift economic sanctions that have been in place since 1990s) - with this deal, the 2 sides would grudgingly have to live with each other but they would avoid a costly war
The US would worry that if it lifted sanctions and gave up attacking iraq, then iraq might be tempted to develop nuclear weapons secretly and become dangerous- worst outcome
Iraq would worry that if it adhered to the agreement, the US wouldn find some other reason/excuse at a later date to undermine them which is the worst outcome
A war would be costly but it would give each state the hope that it can avoid its worst outcome which is making a deal but later being cheated upon
The mutual fear of the US and Iraq of defection/failure is being driven by the absence of an effective int.gov to enforce agreements

Question 21

what is issue indivisibility

Answer 21

if actors believe a certain good cant be divided but only controlled in its entirety, then they may go to war over it