Why do some international crises lead to war, while others are resolved peacefully? Does the outcome depend mainly on underlying structural causes, or on decision makers' choices and diplomacy? In this book James Richardson examines nine major international crises from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in order to explain the differing outcomes of each. The author evaluates the main theories that have served to explain crisis behavior, emphasizing the conflict between theories based on an assumption of rationality, and those which emphasize the nonrational.

The first comprehensive account of the initial development of the 'Grotian tradition' in international relations theory; relevant also to readers interested in the general history of political thought. The work is clearly structured by a rigorous concept of international society and written to be accessible to non-specialists.