Conflict, War, and Peace: An Introduction to Scientific Research

Introducing students to the scientific study of peace and war, this exciting new reader provides an overview of important and current scholarship in this dynamic area of study. Focusing on the factors that shape relationships between countries and that make war or peace more likely, this collection of articles by top scholars explores such key topics as dangerous dyads, alliances, territorial disputes, rivalry, arms races, democratic peace, trade, international organizations, territorial peace, and nuclear weapons. Each article is followed by the editors’ commentary: a "Major Contributions" section highlights the article’s theoretical advances and relates each study to the broader literature, while a "Methodological Notes" section carefully walks students through the techniques used in the analysis. Methodological topics include research design, percentages, probabilities, odds ratios, statistical significance, levels of analysis, selection bias, logit, duration models, and game theory models.

Michael A. Messner is professor of sociology and gender studies at the University of Southern California.  His teaching and research focuses on men and feminism, gender and sports, gender-based violence, war and peace, and social movements.  He is the author of several books, including Some men:  Feminist allies and the movement to end violence against women (Oxford University Press, 2015), and most recently Guys like me:  Five wars, five veterans for peace (Rutgers University Press, 2019) . His honors include the Pursuit of Justice Award from the California Women’s Law Center, the Feminist Mentoring Award from the Sociologists for Women in Society, and the Jessie Bernard Award, presented by the American Sociological Association in recognition of contributions to the understanding of women’s lives.

http://www.michaelmessner.org/

John A. Vasquez is the Thomas B. Mackie Scholar in International Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The author of The War Puzzle Revisited (2009), he has served as president of the Peace Science Society (International) and the International Studies Association.