Residents of Grozny venture out to view the devastated city center, February 13, 1995.
AP Photo
"Issue Indivisibility and Time Horizons as Rationalist Explanations for War"
Journal Article, Security Studies, volume 15, issue 1, pages 34-69
January-March 2006
Author: Monica Duffy Toft, Former Associate Professor of Public Policy; Former Board Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Former Director, Initiative on Religion and International Affairs
Belfer Center Programs or Projects: International Security; Religion in International Affairs
ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on two rationalist explanations for war: issue indivisibility and time horizons. It argues that both types of bargaining problems have not only been undertheorized in the international relations literature, but that a non-trivial proportion of the violence witnessed since the end of the Cold War may be explained by these obstacles to non-violent conflict resolution. The paper includes a discussion of nationalism and religious belief and how these relate to issue indivisibility and infinite time horizons. To illustrate the key arguments, it uses the case of Russia's two most recent wars in Chechnya.
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