IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/apsrev/v102y2008i01p77-93_08.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Systemic Politics and the Origins of Great Power Conflict

Author

Listed:
  • BRAUMOELLER, BEAR F.

Abstract

Systemic theories of international politics rarely predict conflict short of cataclysmic systemic wars, and dyadic theories of conflict lack systemic perspective. This article attempts to bridge the gap by introducing a two-step theory of conflict among Great Powers. In the first stage, states engage in a dynamic, ongoing process of managing the international system, which inevitably produces tensions among them. In the second stage, relative levels of security-related activity determine how and when those tensions erupt into disputes. A test of the theory on Great Power conflicts from the nineteenth century supports the argument and, moreover, favors the deterrence model over the spiral model as a proximate explanation of conflict in the second stage.

Suggested Citation

  • Braumoeller, Bear F., 2008. "Systemic Politics and the Origins of Great Power Conflict," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 102(1), pages 77-93, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:102:y:2008:i:01:p:77-93_08
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003055408080088/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Muhammet A. Bas & Robert J. Schub, 2016. "How Uncertainty about War Outcomes Affects War Onset," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 60(6), pages 1099-1128, September.
    2. James Lee Ray & Patrick Bentley, 2010. "Power Concentration and Interstate Conflict: Is There a Connection?," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 22(4), pages 407-429, October.
    3. Mark David Nieman, 2016. "Moments in time: Temporal patterns in the effect of democracy and trade on conflict," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 33(3), pages 273-293, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:102:y:2008:i:01:p:77-93_08. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/psr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.