According to the classical liberal belief, trade, which economically benefits countries, creates ties binding the interests of countries and reduces conflict. While the vast majority of the empirical literature supports this view, recent research questions these findings by also considering the...

Contrasting claims about the consequences of nuclear weapons rely on different interpretations about how leaders respond to risk, uncertainty, and the balance of power. Nuclear optimists use deterrence theory to argue that proliferation can promote stability and inhibit the use of force....

Contentious issues are important sources of militarized conflict. This article advances an issue-based approach to world politics, focusing on disagreements over territory, maritime zones, and cross-border rivers. We characterize militarized conflict and peaceful techniques as substitutable...

Recent research suggests that intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) contribute to peace. The relevant evidence is based on shared IGO memberships by two states which manage to stay in peace. This article seeks to determine whether, in and of itself, the number of IGOs to which a state belongs...

Are democracies generally peaceful? Studies have produced mixed evidence, both for and against this proposition. I review and update the literature on this topic and explore reasons why some scholars have come to emphasize those studies showing that democracies are no more or less conflict-prone...

Reputational theory of conflict behavior dates back to Schelling’s seminal work on bargaining and continues to find both its advocates and critics to date. The authors do not take sides in this debate about the relevance of reputation for bargaining behavior but rather take a modified...

How is negative reciprocity cultivated in an environment of violent conflict? This study investigates how students in the West Bank react to unfair proposals in an ultimatum game. Proposals submitted with Hebrew as compared to Arab handwriting are rejected more often. Israelis must offer 15...

Reuveny and Keshk (“Reconsidering trade and conflict simultaneity: The risk of emphasizing technique over substance,†this issue, 2013) argue that the econometric techniques used by Goenner (Conflict Management and Peace Science 28(5): 459–477, 2011) to test and control for...

There is growing evidence that preferential trade agreements (PTAs) provide strong institutional incentives to prevent international conflict among member states, often creating the conditions of trust that can help prevent militarized aggression. We provide an approach to the study of how...