Description
Book SynopsisThis book adds a social psychological component to the analysis of why nations, sections, or states enter into armed conflict. The Disequilibrium, Polarization, and Crisis Model is introduced, drawing from prospect theory, realism, liberalism, and constructivism. Three case studies are included, demonstrating this model and its six process stages.
Trade ReviewMotivated by an exhaustive and comprehensive historical reading of international crises and wars since antiquity to modernity, Dierauer’s Disequilibrium, Polarization, and Crisis Model: An International Relations Theory Explaining Conflict maintains that a way to explain conflict generally and armed conflict in particular is to focus on emotions, and visceral, existential feelings about how individuals react and respond to socio-political changes. Dierauer adds and tests a dynamic six-stage process model explaining this important socio-psychological dimension in the analysis and explanation of why nation-states and politically organized groups engage in large-scale armed conflict. Two pre-civil war era cases (the U.S. Civil War and the Balkans Wars in the 1990s), and one pre-systemic war case (First World War) serve as test-cases of the model. The result is a historically well-grounded, theoretically sound, and methodologically rigorous study that adds to the long list of important contributions to socio-political psychology and explanations of the origin and evolution of international crises and wars. It is a most-read book for a wide audience interested in world politics generally, and on the causes of international crises and wars in particular. -- Félix E. Martín, associate professor of politics and international relations, Florida International University
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Research Design and Methodology Chapter 3 Literature Review Chapter 4 Disequilibrium, Polarization and Crisis Model Chapter 5 Case Studies of Internal Conflicts Chapter 6 Case Study of Systemic War
