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A review by bryson_handy
Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace by Christopher Blattman
4.0
As someone who knows a fair bit about peace studies (from a peacekeeping perspective) it was interesting to see the rationale for how conflicts begin (according to Blattman). He names 5 main reasons: unchecked incentives (leaders with no checks and balances), commitment problems (classic Athens-Sparta trap of the rising power vs established one), uncertainty (whether your enemy is bluffing or not), intangible incentives (ideology & beliefs essentially), and good old misperception (mistakes and misunderstandings). Blattman details how these 5 logics underly conflicts that he’s studied.
I think his analysis is good and one lense to view conflict, but it is not all encompassing and lacks a uniting view of why wars start. It is a more analytical than explanatory lense. Rather than “states fight to expand their influence” or “states fight because the ruling class last expand their material wealth to further dominate the working classes” it lists five (fairly loosely) related variables.
What Blattman does well are a few things. Firstly, he explains that the majority of conflicts end in a negotiated settlement (this is due to game theory he explains throughout his book. Secondly, he clarifies that the existence of peace doesn’t always mean the existence of justice, so negotiated settlements aren’t always morally “correct.” Finally, he gives tips on how to create more prosperous and stable societies, which will help prevent war. I think his “ten commandments” for peace in the last chapter are more like ten commandments for sustainable development, which makes peace more likely to hold. Overall, it’s not a bad book and none of his logics are wrong, it’s just not a grand narrative as is desired by many political scientists, but this makes sense as Blattman is an economist
I think his analysis is good and one lense to view conflict, but it is not all encompassing and lacks a uniting view of why wars start. It is a more analytical than explanatory lense. Rather than “states fight to expand their influence” or “states fight because the ruling class last expand their material wealth to further dominate the working classes” it lists five (fairly loosely) related variables.
What Blattman does well are a few things. Firstly, he explains that the majority of conflicts end in a negotiated settlement (this is due to game theory he explains throughout his book. Secondly, he clarifies that the existence of peace doesn’t always mean the existence of justice, so negotiated settlements aren’t always morally “correct.” Finally, he gives tips on how to create more prosperous and stable societies, which will help prevent war. I think his “ten commandments” for peace in the last chapter are more like ten commandments for sustainable development, which makes peace more likely to hold. Overall, it’s not a bad book and none of his logics are wrong, it’s just not a grand narrative as is desired by many political scientists, but this makes sense as Blattman is an economist