In this contribution to the literature on the causes of war, Douglas Lemke asks whether the same factors affect minor powers as affect major ones. He investigates whether power parity and dissatisfaction with the status quo have an impact within Africa, the Far East, the Middle East, and South America. Lemke argues that there are similarities across these regions and level of power, and that parity and dissatisfaction are correlates of war around the world. The extent to which they incerase the risk of war varies across regions, however, and the book looks at the possible sources of this cross-regional variation, concluding that differential progress toward development is the likely cause. This book will interest students and scholars of international relations and peace studies, as well as comparative politics and area studies.
Douglas Lemke is assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Michigan. He is the author of several articles on international conflic in leading journals, and is co-author of Power Transitions (2000), and co-editor of Parity and War (1996).
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical origins
3. Theoretical revision: the multiple hierarchy model
4. Identifying local hierarchy measuring key variables
5. Empirical investigations
6. Further investigations 1: great power interference?
7. Further investigations 2: an African (interstate) Peace?
8. Conclusions, implications and directions for continued research