Richard Ned Lebow, Why Nations Fight: Past and Future Motives for War

Cambridge, Cambridge University Press & Assessment, 2010, pp. 287.

Abstract

Why Nations Fight: Past and Future Motives for War by Richard Ned Lebow was published for the first time in 2010 at Cambridge University Press, and it is a scholarly work made up of 295 pages on the subject of international relations. It
deals with the frequency and characteristics of the wars that occurred in the last four centuries and analyses the reasons and risks taken by the combative parts, in relation to the realist theory of war, the rationalist theory, and the theory of the
transition of power, using as arguments multiple historical examples. The book is divided into three parts: the previous literature’s analysis and critical remarks referring to war and its causes; a short review of the author’s international
relations theory and six claims about the type of states that are more likely to start a war, using as an example an analytic table of the causes, participants and outcome of the wars that occurred since the seventeenth century up to that date; and the probability of war in the future, taking into account fundamental underlying motives like fear, interest, honor or standing. In the end, an Appendix states the original data used in the book, and there is also a bibliographical list and an Index of names and keywords.