Perspectives

Although the causes of international instability and conflict have been the object of intense scholarly concern, the events of our century are not inconsistent with the supposition that we have made little progress in identifying those causes, that, once identified, we have not adequately applied our research to the discovery of correctives, or that those causes have multiplied at a pace that exceeds our abilities of assimilation and analysis. Some scholars amass and analyze vast arrays of data on diplomatic exchanges, military expenditures, economic indicators, the formation of alliances, and the frequency and severity of wars; others apply the mathematics of decision and game theory with varying degrees of sophistication to the description of international relations processes; and still others reason through the meaning and application of concepts and words such as polarity, power, regime, deterrence, neocolonialism, and the balance of power. If this research has uncovered causes and correctives then, for one reason or another, the corresponding scholarly utterances have been less than compelling.