Investigation into the causes of international conflict has in many ways formed the central locus of the early work in the scientific investigation of world politics. This edited volume contains the most recent quantitative work in this area, reflecting the current state of the field in the topics addressed, the data utilized and the methods employed.

The book is divided into three parts, presenting first some recent contributions to the work on the causes of international conflict, set in the context of realist theories. The second part addresses issues relating to data,...

This book presents a general explanation of how states develop their foreign policy. The theory stands in contrast to most approaches--which assume that states want to maximize security--by assuming that states pursue two things, or goods, through their foreign policy: change and maintenance. States, in other words, try both to change aspects of the international status quo that they don't like and maintain those aspects they do like. A state's ability to do so is largely a function of its relative capability, and since national capability is finite, a state must make trade-offs between...