This research analyzes the relationship between the domestic political attributes of states and crisis decision making. Hypotheses on crisis escalation are derived from a game-theoretic model and subjected to empirical tests. I assess the impacts of international and domestic factors on uses of force by targets in a set of international crises drawn from the International Crisis Behavior Project, 1929-1979. I find that targets are more likely to use force in crises when their expected value for war is high, their expected costs of war are low and when the initiator of the crisis has already used force. Targets are also more likely to use force when faced with increasing levels of governmental instability, but only when the initiator has not already used force. When the initiator has already used force, governmental instability reduces the likelihood that the target will use force. / While indicators of the target's domestic political costs for using force have a negative impact on the use of force, I find that similar indicators of the initiator's regime type, also affect target decisions to use force. In crises where the initiator has already used force, target states are less likely to respond with force when the initiator faces high domestic costs for using force. For targets in crises where the initiator has not already used force, the opposite effect holds; targets are more likely to use force when confronted with initiators that face high domestic political costs for using force. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-08, Section: A, page: 3301. / Major Professor: James Lee Ray. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77545 |
| Contributors | Wang, Kevin Hsing-Ya., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 257 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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