Chapter 3 Wars (Week 3)

3.1 Discussion questions

  • What are the causes of war?

  • Reiter (2003). What is the bargaining model of war? How does it compare to other theoretical perspectives?

  • Gartzke and Poast (2017). What is the bargaining model of war? What are the limitations?

  • What if politicians, businessmen, or the military leaders see wars as less costly or even beneficial? Do states fight wars because of these domestic influences? (*)

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3.2 Bargaining

Here is a figure (taken from World Politics: Interests, Interactions, Institutions) that showcases the core of the bargaining theory of war: because war is costly, there must exist a deal that leaves belligerents better off than fighting. This is the central puzzle of war as elaborated in Fearon (1995).

To be clear, there are some important existing theories that seek to explain war (e.g. anarchy, misperceptions/mistakes, and special interests). These share some overlaps with the bargaining approach. What the latter approach differ from them is the emphasis on the existing of the bargaining range (i.e. a set of more preferable deals than war). Building on this, the bargaining approach shift the question of why states fight to what precludes from from reaching a deal. Hence, the three (or two) primary explanations.

3.3 What are the theoretical and empirical limitations of the bargaining theory?

  • Reiter (2003)
  • Gartzkeand Poast (2017)