TY  - JOUR
AU  - Grossman,Herschel I.
TI  - Choosing Between Peace and War
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10180
PY  - 2003
Y2  - December 2003
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10180
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10180.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Herschel Grossman
Department of Economics
Box B
Brown University
Providence, RI  02912
Tel: 401/863-2606
Fax: 401/863-1970
AB  - Although most disputes between groups of people are settled peacefully, sometimes disputes result in war. This lecture uses historical examples to illustrate how the ability to negotiate a credible peaceful settlement of a dispute between sovereign states, typically a dispute over the control of territory or natural resources, depends on the divisibility of the outcome of the dispute, on the effectiveness of the fortifications and counterattacks with which an attacker would expect to have to contend, and on the permanence of the outcome of a potential war. The lecture also contrasts the possibilities for avoiding wars between sovereign states with the possibilities for avoiding civil wars.
ER  -