The Causes of War

Purchased as a textbook. It was in pristine quality with no internal or cover markings.

This is one of the classic works in its field, and one with practical applications in international relations and national security. Blainey, a conservative social historian, writes one of the best non-ideological, empirically based analyses of why nation-states go to war -- and peace. Logically, the causes for going to war should be mirrored in the reasons why nations make peace at the end of war. Blainey explains why Kissinger's "balance of power" notions are not rules, or even guiding principles. For anyone majoring in international relations, and especially for anyone who wants to become a practitioner, this book is a must-read.

It was the principal textbook for a Causes of War class I took. It is very well-written. If you want to understand what really causes war and what people think causes war but doesn't, you should read this book. Blainey provides a great deal of evidence for the claims he makes and gives the arguments of the notions he disputes.

He gives some good points that underline many conflicts. It is sometimes difficult to pull out what exactly he means, but when you find it most of the points are very good. He also presents empirical/statistical evidence for some of his cases along with numerous specific conflicts to further his point. My only problem with the book was that he takes an opposing theory and finds one instance where the theory doesn't quite work and calls it dead. He then says presents his theory in the end and says it won't fit all situations. All in all, still a great read.

The book is a good historical view of the occurrence of war. The model in the book alludes that continuous negotiation among political actors influences the occurrence of war (bargaining theory of war). The text enumerates that international relations have influenced governments to act liberally, which influences nations to take hardline positions. Therefore, liberalism and bargaining theory of war infers on the theoretical understanding of the occurrence of conflicts.

As an enthusiast in international relations, this book is a permanent addition and a must read for me. To my surprise, I found the book to have been shipped with fold marks all over. I’d rather suggest buying used versions than spend the extra money on a new one.

This is a boring book, with too much pointless information, packed too closely together. His conclusions are not convincing, and it strikes me more as an exercise on how to cleverly use a whole lot of words to write a book that means very little.

This is an excellent book on the theoretical causes of war. It may be a bit over-sophisticated: I am not sure causes beyond human pride and greed really need to be considered. If there is one common issue, it would be that the people who start wars inevitably think they will be short and victorious. The book was published in 1973, so it doesn't include the little idiocies of (for example) Vietnam, Gulf War, Iraq War, and the Iraq - Iran War.

A structured review with much cross referencing. Very valuable. As Eisenstein said 'I don't know what weapons will be used in WW3 but in WW4 it will be sticks and stones.

オーストラリアの歴史学者によって書かれた戦争原因論の古典。 ほかの人のレビューに詳しく書いてありますので詳細は省きますが 何と言っても合理決定論の戦争理論に大きな影響を与えたのが本書。 危機〜開戦〜終結までを交渉過程としてとらえており、その意味では 非常にクラウゼヴィッツ流であります。 Blaineyは歴史家であり、理論家ではないのでざっくばらんな説明（心理面にややウェイト） に終始していますが、そのせいか？いろいろ示唆に富む内容であります。 日本ではあまり読まれていないようですが、海外では「読んでなきゃモグリ」レベルの 本です。オススメします。ペーパーバックでやすいですしね＾＾学生、研究者、一般の方も

While written 59 years ago this book is more than relevant today.

なぜ戦争が起こるのか知りたいので、何を読めばよいかと聞かれたら、迷わず本書を勧める。本書で著者のブレイニーは、明確な理論的枠組みと豊富な歴史証拠をつかって、戦争の原因に鋭く切り込んでいる。著者は歴史学者であるが、通例の歴史書とは異なり、反実仮想を随所で使いながら、戦争原因を一般化している。本書が政治学・国際関係論の研究論文や図書で頻繁に引用されるのは、そのためであろう。 特筆すべきは、現在の戦争原因の先端で議論されていることのエッセンスのほとんどが、本書で既に論じられていることである。戦争に対する楽観主義、パワー分布に対する誤認、攻撃・防御バランス、国力の過信など、ほとんどすべて本書で論証されている。また、戦争原因に関する誤った仮説については、ズバッと反証して棄却している。もちろん、仮説の検証が粗いとの批判もあるのだろうが、こうした欠点を割り引いても、本書は戦争原因の研究書としての価値は極めて高いと言えるだろう。