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Has Violence Declined in World Politics?

A Discussion of Joshua S. Goldstein's Winning the War on War: The Decline of Armed Conflict Worldwide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2013

John Mearsheimer
John Mearsheimer*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Extract

Winning the War on War: The Decline of Armed Conflict Worldwide. By Joshua S. Goldstein. New York: Dutton, 2011. 400p. $26.95 cloth, $17.00 paper.

Violence is an ever present and very visible feature of our political landscape. And war—its strategy, its preparation, and its conduct—remains a central preoccupation of political elites and of political scientists. In his new book Winning the War on War, Joshua S. Goldstein sifts the statistical and historiographical evidence to tell a story of how we seem to be winning the long-term fight against war, and why. Goldstein places major emphasis on the rise of international peacekeeping, but he also discusses alternative explanations, such as the liberal peace. In this symposium a number of scholars of international politics, comparative politics, and political theory have been asked to comment on Goldstein's book and on the broader theme it addresses.—Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor

Type
Review Symposium: Has Violence Declined in World Politics?
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 570 - 573
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2013 

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References

Mearsheimer, John J. 1990. “Back to the Future: Instability in Europe after the Cold War.” International Security 15 (Summer): 5–56.Google Scholar
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Mueller, John. 1989. Retreat from Doomsday: The Obsolescence of Major War. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Pinker, Steven. 2011. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. New York: Viking.Google Scholar