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International Trade And Third Parties' Conflict-Joining Propensities: The Political Economy Of Conflict Expansion, Amanda Gale Sanford

Amanda Sanford

In recent years, a renewed interest in the differences between dyadic conflicts and complex, multiparty disputes has developed within international relations (Vasquez and Valeriano 2010; Valeriano and Vasquez 2010). The conflict expansion literature focuses heavily on how traditional realist variables – such as alliances, shared borders, and rivalries – facilitate the spread of conflict, but these studies largely ignore other incentives to join disputes, such as the protection of an economic relationship. Absent a few notable exceptions (Polachek 1980; Aydin 2008), questions concerning the role that economic interdependence plays in conflict expansion have remained generally unanswered.

This dissertation seeks to …