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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Introduction: The Puzzle Of War Duration, Zachary C. Shirkey
Introduction: The Puzzle Of War Duration, Zachary C. Shirkey
Publications and Research
Why do wars last as long as they do? Why do some rage for years, while others last only a few months or days? This piece introduces a symposium that addresses that question from rationalist, psychological, neurological, and domestic politics perspectives. The symposium also considers the challenges of researching war duration and the implications of understanding war duration on theories of war in general.
Challenges To The Study Of Long Wars, Zachary C. Shirkey
Challenges To The Study Of Long Wars, Zachary C. Shirkey
Publications and Research
Rationalist, psychological, and domestic politics approaches have all generated internally consistent, plausible explanations for long wars. But sorting out which of these explanations is most valid is quite difficult, because definitional questions bedevil the study of war duration, and more importantly, because it is very hard to evaluate the evidence for competing explanations of war duration. The latter difficulty arises for three reasons. First, many state behaviors are consistent with multiple, competing explanations of long wars. Second, in most states, multiple people play important roles in crafting foreign policies, meaning different leaders may have different primary motives for continuing a …