How Wars End - Project MUSE

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How Wars End

Book Dan Reiter 2009 Published by: Princeton University Press

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Why do some countries choose to end wars short of total victory while others fight on, sometimes in the face of appalling odds? How Wars End argues that two central factors shape war-termination decision making: information about the balance of power and the resolve of one's enemy, and fears that the other side's commitment to abide by a war-ending peace settlement may not be credible. Dan Reiter explains how information about combat outcomes and other factors may persuade a warring nation to demand more or less in peace negotiations, and why a country might refuse to negotiate limited terms and instead tenaciously pursue absolute victory if it fears that its enemy might renege on a peace deal. He fully lays out the theory and then tests it on more than twenty cases of war-termination behavior, including decisions during the American Civil War, the two world wars, and the Korean War. Reiter helps solve some of the most enduring puzzles in military history, such as why Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, why Germany in 1918 renewed its attack in the West after securing peace with Russia in the East, and why Britain refused to seek peace terms with Germany after France fell in 1940. How Wars End concludes with a timely discussion of twentieth-century American foreign policy, framing the Bush Doctrine's emphasis on preventive war in the context of the theory.

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Cover

Title Page, Copyright, Dedication, Epigraph

pp. i-viii

Contents

pp. ix-x

List of Figures and Tables

pp. xi-xii

Acknowledgments

pp. xiii-xviii

CHAPTER ONE: Ending Wars

pp. 1-7

CHAPTER TWO: Bargaining, Information, and Ending Wars

pp. 8-21

CHAPTER THREE: Credible Commitments and War Termination

pp. 22-50

CHAPTER FOUR: Conducting Empirical Tests

pp. 51-62

CHAPTER FIVE: The Korean War

pp. 63-91

CHAPTER SIX: The Allies, 1940–42

pp. 92-120

CHAPTER SEVEN: The Logic of War Finland and the USSR, 1939–44

pp. 121-139

CHAPTER EIGHT: The American Civil War

pp. 140-164

CHAPTER NINE: Germany, 1917–18

pp. 165-185

CHAPTER TEN: Japan, 1944–45

pp. 186-210

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Conclusions

pp. 211-230

Notes

pp. 231-266

Bibliography

pp. 267-288

Index

pp. 289-301 Additional Information

ISBN	9781400831036
Related ISBN(s)	9780691140599, 9780691140605
MARC Record	Download
OCLC	1132223504
Pages	320
Launched on MUSE	2020-01-01
Language	English
Open Access	No

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Copyright

2010

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