Theories of civil war usually theorize the choices of civilians and combatants without considering the institutional … context in which they interact. Despite common depictions of war as chaotic and anarchic, order often emerges locally … local wartime institutions. To this end, I present original evidence on conflict areas in Colombia to illustrate the scope …

In spite of its long history among scholars of international conflict, empirical evaluations of diversionary theory … international conflict participation on the other; and measurement error in operationalizations of the independent variableâ …

and political violence that bridges social, economic, and political dynamics occurring at the local level and conflict …

The authors analyze a bargaining model of war that incorporates both commitment problems due to shifting power and … information models, the resolution of uncertainty through fighting can lead to the continuation of war rather than its termination …. Second, wars can be less—not more—likely to end in settlement the longer they last. Third, war aims increase over time as a …

international conflict. In this article, we examine how a particular nondemocratic regime type, postrevolutionary states, affects … military capabilities and war outcomes. Drawing on scholarship that conceptualizes revolutions as a unique class of modernizing … more successful war outcomes. …

conflict whereas the other is not receiving signals of an impending conflict. The effect of private mobilization on war is …One dominant explanation for why crises escalate to war is based on misperception. Alternative rational explanations … for why crises escalate to war are examined, including commitment problems, the cost of revealing military advantages, and …

. While the authors of this comment acknowledge that it is possible to incorporate noncommon priors in models of politics in a …

or encourage war between those two states? Distortions of both theory and evidence—mixing balances of power with … approximate parity in power capabilities encouraged war between great power disputants between 1816 and 1989. …

, should a war between them continue to a decisive conclusion. The players' divergent beliefs make up one of the fundamental … potential causes of war in the model. Fey and Ramsay argue that Smith and Stam's departure from the standard common priors … rational actors with divergent beliefs might settle their disagreements in the context of war. …

; as age increases, the relative risk of conflict declines in comparison to other types of regimes. Increasing leader age … in democracies increases the relative risk propensity for conflict initiation at a higher level than for personalist …