Conflict After Cold War: Arguments on Causes of War and Peace, 3rd Edition

Edited by one of the most renowned scholars in the field, Richard Betts’ Conflict After the Cold War assembles classic and contemporary readings that argue about the shape of international conflict in this post-Cold War and post-9/11 era. Contextualized within a broader philosophical and historical context, the carefully chosen and excerpted selections in this popular reader introduce students to the core debates about the causes and the future of war and peace. Through the precision of its approach and attention to new issues, this reader challenges conventional wisdom and encourages more critical examination of the political, economic, social, and military factors that underlie political violence.

*selections new to this edition

Part I. Introduction: Three Visions of War and Peace

Francis Fukuyama, "The End of History?"

John J. Mearsheimer, "Why We Will Soon Miss the Cold War"

Samuel P. Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?”

 

Part II. International Realism: Anarchy and Power

Thucydides, "The Melian Dialogue"

Niccolo Machiavelli, "Doing Evil in Order to Do Good"

Thomas Hobbes, "The State of Nature"

Edward Hallett Carr, "Realism and Idealism"

Kenneth N. Waltz, "The Origins of War in Neorealist Theory"

Robert Gilpin, "Hegemonic War and International Change"

Geoffrey Blainey, "Power, Culprits, and Arms"

 

Part III. International Liberalism: Institutions and Cooperation

Immanuel Kant, "Perpetual Peace"

*Richard Cobden, "Peace Through Arbitration"

*Woodrow Wilson, "Community of Power vs. Balance of Power"

Michael W. Doyle, "Liberalism and World Politics"

Hedley Bull, "Society and Anarchy in International Relations"

Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, "Power and Interdependence"

 

Part IV. Psychology: Unconscious Sources of Conflict

Sigmund Freud, "Why War?"

Franco Fornari, "The Psychoanalysis of War"

*Stanley Milgram, "How Good People Do Bad Things"

*Daniel Kahneman and Jonathan Renshon, "Why Hawks Win"

 

Part V. Culture: The Sociology of Norms

Alexander Wendt, "Anarchy is What States Make of It"

Margaret Mead, "War is Only an Invention, Not a Biological Necessity"

John Mueller, "The Obsolescence of Major War"

Martha Finnemore, "Constructing Norms of Humanitarian Intervention"

*J. Ann Tickner, "Men, Women, and War"

 

Part VI. Economics: Interests and Interdependence

Niccolo Machiavelli, "Money is Not the Sinews of War..."

Norman Angell, "The Great Illusion"

Geoffrey Blainey, "Paradise is a Bazaar"

V.I. Lenin, "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism"

Joseph Schumpeter, "Imperialism and Capitalism"

Alan S. Milward, "War as Policy"

Kenneth N. Waltz, "Structural Causes and Economic Effects"

Richard Rosecrance, "Trade and Power"

 

Part VII. Politics: Ideology and Identity

Ernest Gellner, "Nations and Nationalism"

Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder, "Democratization and War"

Chaim Kaufmann, "Possible and Impossible Solutions to Ethnic Civil Wars"

Radha Kumar, "The Troubled History of Partition"

 

Part VIII. Strategy, I: Military Technology, Doctrine, and Stability

Samuel P. Huntington, "Arms Races: Prerequisites and Results"

Robert Jervis, "Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma"

Jack S. Levy, "The Offensive/Defensive Balance of Military Technology"

Charles Fairbanks and Abram Shulsky, "Arms Control: Historical Experience"

Kenneth N. Waltz, "The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: More May Be Better"

 

Part IX. Strategy, II: Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare

T. E. Lawrence, “Science of Guerrilla Warfare”

Mao Tse-tung, “On Guerrilla Warfare”

Samuel P. Huntington, “Patterns of Violence in World Politics”

Martha Crenshaw, “The Logic of Terrorism”

Mark Juergensmeyer, “Religious Radicalism and Political Violence”

*Osama bin Ladin, "Speech to the American People"

*Mark Sageman, "Jihadi Networks of Terror"

Richard K. Betts, “The Soft Underbelly of Primacy”

 

Part X. Transnational Tensions: Migration, Resources, Environment

Myron Weiner, "Security, Stability, and Migration"

John K. Cooley, "The War Over Water"

Thomas F. Homer-Dixon, "Environmental Changes as Causes of Acute Conflict"

 

Part XI. Conclusion: Strategies for Peace

*G. John Ikenberry and Anne-Marie Slaughter, "A World of Liberty Under Law"

*Richard K. Betts and Thomas J. Christensen, "China: Can the Next Superpower Rise Without War?"

*Samuel P. Huntington, "Peace Among Civilizations?"