Enduring Rivalries

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9309840 Diehl Historians commonly criticize studies in a behavioral mode as being "ahistorical" and complain that these studies lump together a disparate group of events without regard for historical context. This investigation starts from the simple observation that many wars have involved the same set of states, such as India and Pakistan, or Israel and its Arab neighbors. India and Pakistan have fought three wars in the last forty-five years, with the outcomes of the first wars arguably having a strong influence on the occurrence and timing of the wars that followed. Similarly, Israel and Arab states have clashed over territory four times since 1948. From these examples, the proposition that one conflict should be viewed in the historical context of previous conflicts seems plausible. The researchers propose to investigate how the enduring rivalry context interacts with, is the cause of, and is the effect of power relationships and system structure. Thus, they are concerned with how enduring rivalries begin, when they escalate to war, how they end, and what factors affecting enduring rivalries are manipulable by national decision makers. Given the importance of enduring rivalries in the international system, this project investigates a total of forty-five enduring rivalries over the period 1816-1986. Several major themes run throughout this research project: 1) the concept of enduring rivalries emphasizes the interconnection of international conflict over space and time, 2) enduring rivalries have a "life cycle" - they begin, develop, and die, and 3) state-level and dyadic processes interact with system level phenomena. Specifically, the researchers address the following questions: 1) how do enduring rivalries begin? They look at how states become entangled in recurring conflict in contrast to those that are able to resolve their differences quickly and effectively; 2) how do enduring rivalries end? They are concerned with when enduring rivalrie s are terminated and the conditions (peaceful or violent) surrounding that end; 3) what are the dynamics of enduring rivalries? The specific foci here are understanding the timing of war in rivalries as well as how conflict in enduring rivalries is influenced by past (and the prospect of future) conflict and outcomes; and, 4) what effect do enduring rivalries have on other conflict? Here, they look at how an enduring rival's relationships, and the propensity for conflict, with other states is affected by their participation in an intense competition (e.g., what effect did the Cold War have on U.S. relations with other states?)