CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Stenberg, Matthew Todd |
|---|---|
| Title | The Causes of Interstate Dispute Escalation |
| Summary | This paper investigates the potential causes for interstate dispute escalation, and why certain disputes escalate into violence while other disputes are resolved peacefully. Several hypotheses regarding the role of inter-regime political differences are tested to see if having politically opposed regimes, recent nationalizations, or pacific characteristics affect the likelihood of escalation. Binary logistic regressions were run using data from the International Conflict Board and augmented with original research. These hypotheses were shown to have at most limited significance and do not successfully explain dispute escalation. Instead, the models show support for existing research that suggests that geographic contiguity is the strongest predictor of interstate disputes escalating into war. This finding is elaborated upon through a case study of several interstate disputes surrounding the Rhodesian War that emphasizes the key role of proximity. |
| Supervisor | Jenne, Erin K. |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/stenberg_matthew.pdf |
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