Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1 ON THE STUDY OF WAR
- 2 MÜNSTER AND OSNABRÜCK, 1648: PEACE BY PIECES
- 3 WAR AND PEACE IN THE ERA OF THE HEROIC WARRIORS, 1648–1713
- 4 ACT TWO OF THE HEGEMONY DRAMA: THE UTRECHT SETTLEMENTS
- 5 THE LETHAL MINUET: WAR AND PEACE AMONG THE PRINCES OF CHRISTENDOM, 1715–1814
- 6 PEACE THROUGH EQUILIBRIUM: THE SETTLEMENTS OF 1814–1815
- 7 CONFLICT AND CONSENT, 1815–1914
- 8 1919: PEACE THROUGH DEMOCRACY AND COVENANT
- 9 WAR AS THE AFTERMATH OF PEACE: INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT, 1918–1941
- 10 PEACE BY POLICING
- 11 THE DIVERSIFICATION OF WARFARE: ISSUES AND ATTITUDES IN THE CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM
- 12 WAR: ISSUES, ATTITUDES, AND EXPLANATIONS
- 13 THE PEACEMAKERS: ISSUES AND INTERNATIONAL ORDER
- References
- Additional data sources
- Index
1 - ON THE STUDY OF WAR
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1 ON THE STUDY OF WAR
- 2 MÜNSTER AND OSNABRÜCK, 1648: PEACE BY PIECES
- 3 WAR AND PEACE IN THE ERA OF THE HEROIC WARRIORS, 1648–1713
- 4 ACT TWO OF THE HEGEMONY DRAMA: THE UTRECHT SETTLEMENTS
- 5 THE LETHAL MINUET: WAR AND PEACE AMONG THE PRINCES OF CHRISTENDOM, 1715–1814
- 6 PEACE THROUGH EQUILIBRIUM: THE SETTLEMENTS OF 1814–1815
- 7 CONFLICT AND CONSENT, 1815–1914
- 8 1919: PEACE THROUGH DEMOCRACY AND COVENANT
- 9 WAR AS THE AFTERMATH OF PEACE: INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT, 1918–1941
- 10 PEACE BY POLICING
- 11 THE DIVERSIFICATION OF WARFARE: ISSUES AND ATTITUDES IN THE CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM
- 12 WAR: ISSUES, ATTITUDES, AND EXPLANATIONS
- 13 THE PEACEMAKERS: ISSUES AND INTERNATIONAL ORDER
- References
- Additional data sources
- Index
Summary
The analysis of war is too important to be left to the intuitionists.
Quincy Wright[We] turn to history and only to history if what we are seeking are the actual causes, sources, and conditions of overt changes in patterns and structures of society. Conventional wisdom to the contrary, we shall not find the explanations of change in those studies which are abstracted from history.
Robert NisbetAnalytical studies of war can be traced back at least to the great work of the historian Thucydides, but systematic exploration of war as a unique but generic form of behavior between political communities was undertaken initially by political philosophers. Machiavelli, Rousseau, Kant, Hobbes, Hegel, and others had significant things to say about the etiology and consequences of war, but their insights were suggestive and prescriptive rather than empirical. They could enumerate the reasons wars are likely, but their causal statements were mostly hypothetical. Few had systematic evidence to support them.
The search for patterns and generalizations based on accumulated evidence is of more recent vintage. Today there is a large literature that has a common focus on the “causes of war.” It is not my purpose to examine in detail this important corpus of work, but it may be appropriate to reflect on some of its achievements and shortfalls because yet another book on war must be justified either as filling a gap or extending in significant ways existing bodies of knowledge.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Peace and WarArmed Conflicts and International Order, 1648–1989, pp. 1 - 24Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991