World Politics: Chapter 3 - Why Are There Wars?

Vocabulary flashcards covering core concepts, bargaining models, causes of bargaining failure, and empirical examples from Chapter 3: Why Are There Wars?

Crisis Bargaining

A bargaining interaction in which at least one party threatens the use of force if its demands are unmet.

Coercive Diplomacy

A strategy where one state seeks to influence the outcome of bargaining by threatening military force ("Do what I ask or else!").

Bargaining Range

The set of deals that both states prefer over going to war, created because war inflicts costs that reduce the net value of conflict for both sides.

Capabilities

The physical and military resources of a state that determine its ability to prevail and shape the expected outcome of a conflict.

Resolve

A state's willingness to endure the human and financial costs of conflict to achieve its objectives.

Incentives to Misrepresent

The strategic motive for a state to conceal or exaggerate its capabilities and resolve in order to secure a better deal or deter an adversary.

Cheap Talk

Non-binding statements or declarations that carry no inherent costs, making them difficult to believe because every state has incentives to claim resolve.

Costly Signal

An action that credibly communicates resolve because it imposes actual costs or risks that an uncommitted actor would not be willing to incur.

Brinkmanship

A crisis strategy in which adversaries take actions that increase the risk of accidental war, hoping the opponent will blink and make concessions (e.g., the Cuban Missile Crisis).

Tying Hands

A signaling strategy in which leaders make public statements or commitments that impose high domestic audience costs if they back down, making concessions difficult.

Paying for Power

Taking costly financial and military measures, such as deploying forces or conducting joint military exercises, to credibly signal capabilities and resolve.

Commitment Problem

A bargaining failure that occurs when states cannot credibly promise not to use future military or strategic advantages to overturn an agreement.

Preventive War

A war fought with the intention of stopping an adversary from becoming stronger in the future in response to an anticipated shift in power.

Preemptive War

A war initiated with the anticipation that an adversary's attack is imminent, typically motivated by first-strike advantages.

First-Strike Advantage

A military condition where striking first yields a significantly higher probability of victory than defending against an initial attack.

Indivisible Good

A contested item or territory that cannot be divided between parties without destroying its core value, eliminating compromise settlements.

Line of Control

The cease-fire line originating from the First Kashmir War ($1947$-$48$) that divides the Kashmir region into Indian- and Pakistani-administered territories.

Ten-Dash Line

The maritime boundary claim introduced on China's $2023$ official map, adding an extra dash east of Taiwan to assert sovereignty over disputed waters.

Security Dilemma

A dynamic under international anarchy where one state's defensive efforts to enhance its security inadvertently threaten others, provoking counter-actions.

Mutually Assured Destruction

A condition in a nuclear standoff where both adversaries possess second-strike capabilities sufficient to destroy each other, drastically inflating the costs of war.