The Spatial Model of Crisis Bargaining: An Experimental Test

Abstract

"International crises have received an increasing amount of attention in recent years from students examining the causes of war. In large part this is due to the belief that, since some crises end peacefully while others result in war, an understanding of the dynamics of crisis behavior can lead to an understanding of why wars occur. A crisis is often characterized as 'a sequence of interactions between the governments of two or more sovereign states in severe conflict, short of actual war, but involving the perception of a dangerously high probability of war'. Such a concern has led to a number of approaches to the study of crises, with many of the more recent studies aiming to develop formal theories of various aspects of crisis behavior. In general, the purpose of this growing body of literature is to use deductive models in the determination of the conditions under which crises escalate to war."