Why Nations Still Fight

Richard Ned Lebow is Professor Emeritus of International Political Theory in the War Studies Department of King's College London, Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge, and James O. Freedman Presidential Professor Emeritus at Dartmouth College. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a member of the Atheneum. His most recent books include Weimar's Long Shadow (Cambridge, 2024), co-edited with Ludvig Norman; Fragility and Robustness of Political Orders, also co-edited with Ludvig Norman (Cambridge, 2022); and The Quest for Knowledge in International Relations: How Do We Know? (Cambridge 2021), as well as this book's predecessor, Why Nations Fight (Cambridge, 2010). He also publishes short stories, murder mysteries, and counterfactual, historical fiction.

'In everything he writes, Richard Ned Lebow combines a deep commitment to a better, more peaceful world, with meticulous research, great erudition and careful argument. 'Why Nations Still Fight' explains both why wars so often fail to achieve their aims, yet governments still resort to them.' Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus professor of War Studies, King's College London

• Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Questions, cases, and coding; 3. Colonial and post-colonial wars; 4. Divided nations; 5. Partitioned countries; 6. Rump states; 7. Regional rivalries and proxy wars; 8. Ethical traps; 9. Great powers; 10. Other categories of war; 11. Success and failure; 12. Miscalculation; 13. Motives; 14. When will they ever learn?; Appendix A: summary of data; Appendix B: data set.