Peace and War: Armed Conflicts and International Order, 1648–1989 (Cambridge Studies in International Relations, Series Number 14) - Hardcover

Holsti, Kalevi J.

4.5

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9780521390484: Peace and War: Armed Conflicts and International Order, 1648–1989 (Cambridge Studies in International Relations, Series Number 14)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521390486 ISBN 13: 9780521390484

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1991

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In this book, Professor Holsti approaches the study of the origins of war and the foundations of peace from a new perspective. He asks three interrelated questions. Which issues generate conflict? How have attitudes toward war changed? And, what attempts have been made historically to create international institutions and orders that can manage, control or prevent international conflicts? Starting with the peace treaties of Munster and Osnabruck of 1648, Kalevi Holsti examines 177 international wars. Through these, he identifies the variety of conflict-producing issues and how they, as well as the attitudes of policy makers to the use of force, have changed over the past 350 years. He demonstrates how the new orders established by the great peace-making efforts of 1648, 1713, 1815, 1919 and 1945 attempted to solve the issues of the past, yet few successfully anticipated those of the future. Indeed, some created the basis of new conflicts.

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Book Description:

Starting with the peace treaties of Munster and Osnabruck of 1648, 177 international wars are examined to analyze conflict-producing issues as well as the changing attitudes of policy makers and their success at conflict resolution over 350 years.

Review:

"The study's broad scope and its accessibility render it an admirable student text. ... It is not only its findings, but also its methods which pose an interesting challenge to the prevailing modes of analysis in international relations." International Journal

"Holsti's approach is also salient: transcending the simple empiricism of so many US scholars of international relations during the 1960s, 1970s and even the 1980s; rejecting all mono-causal explanations of war and casting doubt upon sociological accounts of international conflict and violence. Politics, for Holsti 'is purposeful activity' and the study of international politics can thus be recovered as a humanistic discipline." R.J. Barry Jones, Times Higher Education Supplement

"Combined with its astute investigation of the attitudes of the statesman, the empirical findings of this pioneering work make this book rich ground for subsequent theory development...A full incorporation of other approaches to world politics with the splendid empirical assessments of this volume promises many further insights into the cause and results of aspirations to world order." American Political Science Review

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