Strategic Rivalries in World Politics

Michael P. Colaresi is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University. Karen Rasler is Professor in the Department of Political Science at Indiana University. William R. Thompson is Rogers Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science at Indiana University.

'Strategic Rivalries in World Politics makes several substantive contributions to our understanding of rivalries. First, the conceptual and empirical distinctions between spatial and positional rivalries are a major contribution to the literature that treats all rivalries as the same. Second, a number of the empirical findings challenge or reinforce past findings about rivalries and thereby extend our knowledge of those phenomena. Yet, the contributions are not confined to the rivalry genre. A nice feature of the book is that the authors use rivalries to gain insights into the validity and utility of some important models and works in international conflict. They demonstrate that considering international conflict in the rivalry context changes or enhances the insights gained from several prominent approaches.' Paul F. Diehl, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

• Part I. About Strategic Rivalries: 1. An introduction to strategic rivalries; 2. Defining and identifying strategic rivalries in world politics; 3. Describing strategic rivalries; Part II. The Dangers of Strategic Rivalries: Crisis Behavior and Escalation: 4. Protracted conflict and crisis escalation; 5. Serial crisis behavior and escalating risks; Part III. Playing to Type: Spatial and Positional Issues in Strategic Rivalries: 6. Contiguity, space and position in the major power subsystem; 7. Initiating and escalating positional and spatial rivalries; Part IV. Filling in Some Steps to War: 8. Arms buildups and alliances in the steps-to-war theory; 9. Contested territory and conflict escalation; Part V. Strategic Rivalries and Conflict: 10. Inducements, facilitators, and suppressors.