Another approach to a Theory on the Causes of International War

Comparative research on the causes of war not only plays a minor role in the Social Sciences but is also rather one sided because of the dominance of quantitative methods. These methods are very important, but up to now the cumulative effects of such research have been rather small, and their usefulness for practical peace policy seems negligible. This regrettable state of research is mainly due to the fact that it is not based on a systematic frame of reference offering substantial categories for analysis. This article presents the draft of a research project aiming at the construction of such a frame of reference. Following a societal approach and using the ideas and methods of historical sociology, social history, and political economics, we intend to make case studies of 13 international wars between 1920 and 1965 and to compare their results. The provisional guide-line for the case studies and their comparison starts with the following main categories: the interests for war, and the groups or classes representing these interests; the socio- economic structure in which the interests are rooted; the political structure through which the interests are carried out; the military apparatus as the instrument for action.