TY  - RPRT
AB  - Wars are increasingly frequent, and the trend has been steadily upward since 1870. The main tradition of Western political and philosophical thought suggests that extensive economic globalization and democratization over this period should have reduced appetites for war far below their current level. This view is clearly incomplete: at best, confounding factors are at work. Here, we explore the capacity to wage war. Most fundamentally, the growing number of sovereign states has been closely associated with the spread of democracy and increasing commercial openness, as well as the number of bilateral conflicts. Trade and democracy are traditionally thought of as goods, both in themselves, and because they reduce the willingness to go to war, conditional on the national capacity to do so. But the same factors may also have been increasing the capacity for war, and so its frequency. We need better understanding of how to promote these goods without incurring adverse side-effects on world peace
AU  - Harrison, Mark
AU  - Wolf, Nikolaus
DA  - 2009-12-14
DA  - 2009
DO  - 10.22004/ag.econ.269890
DO  - doi
ID  - 269890
KW  - International Relations/Trade
KW  - Political Economy
KW  - wars
KW  - state capacity
KW  - democracy
KW  - trade
L1  - https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/269890/files/twerp_879b.pdf
L1  - https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/269890/files/twerp_879b.pdf?subformat=pdfa
L2  - https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/269890/files/twerp_879b.pdf
L2  - https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/269890/files/twerp_879b.pdf?subformat=pdfa
L4  - https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/269890/files/twerp_879b.pdf
L4  - https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/269890/files/twerp_879b.pdf?subformat=pdfa
LA  - eng
LA  - English
LK  - https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/269890/files/twerp_879b.pdf
LK  - https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/269890/files/twerp_879b.pdf?subformat=pdfa
N2  - Wars are increasingly frequent, and the trend has been steadily upward since 1870. The main tradition of Western political and philosophical thought suggests that extensive economic globalization and democratization over this period should have reduced appetites for war far below their current level. This view is clearly incomplete: at best, confounding factors are at work. Here, we explore the capacity to wage war. Most fundamentally, the growing number of sovereign states has been closely associated with the spread of democracy and increasing commercial openness, as well as the number of bilateral conflicts. Trade and democracy are traditionally thought of as goods, both in themselves, and because they reduce the willingness to go to war, conditional on the national capacity to do so. But the same factors may also have been increasing the capacity for war, and so its frequency. We need better understanding of how to promote these goods without incurring adverse side-effects on world peace
PY  - 2009-12-14
PY  - 2009
T1  - The Frequency of Wars
TI  - The Frequency of Wars
UR  - https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/269890/files/twerp_879b.pdf
UR  - https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/269890/files/twerp_879b.pdf?subformat=pdfa
Y1  - 2009-12-14
ER  -