A Study of Crisis

A comprehensive study of the causes and consequences of war in the twentieth century

The culmination of more than twenty years of research by Michael Brecher and Jonathan Wilkenfeld, this work analyzes crucial themes about crisis, conflict, and war and presents systematic knowledge about more than 400 crises, thirty-one protracted conflicts, and almost 900 state participants. The authors explore many aspects of conflict, including the ethnic dimension, the effect of different kinds of political regimes—notably the question whether democracies are more peaceful than authoritarian regimes—and the role of violence in crisis management.

This masterful work is now being published in a new edition that offers the original analysis in a paperback edition and the Master Table, case studies, and the data set on a convenient and versatile CD-ROM. The paper-back includes the discussion of the conceptual foundation and the authors' findings found in parts I and IV of the cloth edition. The CD-ROM includes the Master Table, which presents all interstate conflicts since the end of the first World War, organized by date and evaluated in terms of a number of variables including crisis management technique, level of violence, outcome, and the involvement of international organizations. The Master Table is linked to the case studies, which are also presented in the CD-ROM. Researchers can identify cases by the name of the parties or by the applicable variables, creating new groupings by variable. Finally, the CD-ROM also includes the original data set, enabling researchers to work with the data to perform their own analyses.

This book will appeal to scholars in history, political science, sociology, and economics as well as policy makers interested in the causes and effects of crises in international relations. The rich data sets will serve researchers for years to come as they probe additional aspects of crisis, conflict, and war in international relations