Issue Indivisibility and Time Horizons as Rationalist Explanations for War

Abstract

This paper focuses on two rationalist explanations for war: issue indivisibility and time horizons. It argues that both types of bargaining problems have not only been undertheorized in the international relations literature, but that a non-trivial proportion of the violence witnessed since the end of the Cold War may be explained by these obstacles to non-violent conflict resolution. The paper includes a discussion of nationalism and religious belief and how these relate to issue indivisibility and infinite time horizons. To illustrate the key arguments, it uses the case of Russia's two most recent wars in Chechnya.