A study of crisis

by Michael Brecher

The culmination of more than twenty years of research by Michael Brecher and Jonathan Wilkenfeld, this book analyzes crucial themes about crisis, conflict, and war and presents systematic knowledge about more than 400 crises, 31 protracted conflicts, and almost 900 state participants. The authors explore many aspects of conflict, including the ethnic dimension, the effect of different kinds of political regimes (notably the question whether democracies are more peaceful than authoritarian regimes), and the role of violence in crisis management. Building upon their earlier volumes, principally Crises in the Twentieth Century (1988) and Crises in World Politics (1993), Brecher and Wilkenfeld employ both case studies and aggregate data analysis in a Unified Model of Crisis to focus on two levels of analysis - hostile interactions among states and the behavior of decision makers who must cope with the challenge posed by a threat to values, time pressure, and the increased likelihood that m