Arms Races in International Politics: From the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Each chapter of this well-conceived and informative volume examines the forces that cause and sustain arms races, and the relationship between arms races and the outbreak of wars. Each chapter also draws on the three explanatory models suggested by the volume's editors: technological imperatives, domestic politics, and the action-reaction cycle. Starting with the Anglo-German naval race that preceded World War I and terminating with post–Cold War “arms competitions” linked to the growth of precision-strike systems, the book's twelve case studies converge on the conclusion that the events under scrutiny here are sufficiently unique that they mitigate the formulation of any broad theoretical generalizations. The assertion that the Cold War arms race is not amenable to theoretical explanation because of its “anomalous character” effectively applies to the arms races preceding the two world wars and those that developed after the Cold War (p. 99). Fortunately, while the volume contributors start with the editors' proposals, their analyses go well beyond them.