WHY DO SOME SOCIETIES FIGHT MORE THAN OTHERS

1
WHY DO SOME SOCIETIES FIGHT MORE THAN OTHERS?
2
WHY STUDY THE SECOND IMAGE?

• A handful of observations about the 2nd image
• Waltz Good states still go to war
• Necessary vs. sufficient causes
• What is the connection between bad leaders and
  bad societies? (next time)
• Studying the second image Historians versus
  political scientists?

3
WHAT SOCIAL CONDITIONS HAVE BEEN LINKED TO GOING
TO WAR?

• What evidence is there to support
  scapegoat/diversionary theory?
• Do weak divided states attract conflict?
• Stateless societies (cause and effect)
• Multinational states
• Economic crises
• Militarism, geography, and culture
• Relative deprivation, poverty, and war

4
ARE SOME REGIMES MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO CONFLICT?

• Aristotle Do tyrants fight more?
• Kant Why do democracies fight less?
• Updates to the democratic peace theory
• Checks balances oppositional politics
• Public opinion electoral cycles
• Are democracies less susceptible to group think?
• Do civil liberties (better information) mean
  fewer conflicts?
• Morality, intensity, ethnicity

5
ARE CERTAIN ECONOMIES LESS PRONE TO CONFLICT?

• What was Marxs theory of war?
• What was Lenins theory of imperialism and war?
• What is interdependency theory?

6
WHY DO SOME LEADERS FIGHT MORE THAN OTHERS?
7
WHAT STATE-LEVEL VARIANCES SHAPE THE TYPE OF
LEADER ?

•  Why doesnt PSC like to study leaders?
• How does the stability of leadership time in
  power impact conflict?
• How does the concentration of power and
  insulation of power shape conflict?
• How does the selection system impact conflict?
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8
HOW DO PERSONALITY TRAITS AND DISORDERS IMPACT
CONFLICT?

•  
• Benjamin Barbers analysis of US presidents
• Mavericks and bandwagoners
• Authoritarian personalities societies
• Stress Paranoia and depression
•  

9
HOW DOES MISPERCEPTION LEAD TO CONFLICT?

• Bounded rationality
• Information screens Selective perception
  disconfirmation bias
• Cognitive dissonance
• Group think
• Historical analogies and future discounting
• Endowment effects, zero-risk bias
• Omission bias