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Fuses, Chains, and Backlashes analyzes the factors and processes that have historically ignited wars among the great powers and applies the resulting insights to examine the potential for contemporary Sino-American competition to flare into conflict. Distinguished political scientist Steve Chan emphasizes the importance of considering multiple enabling conditions for system-level conflict, including power shifts, armament races, alliance dynamics, and enduring rivalries. But these conditions in themselves do not always lead to war. Chan introduces the idea of a catalyst--or
fuse--that ignites the combustible mixture produced by these variables' interactions. By analyzing possible causal pathways to interstate war and applying this historical, empirical context to the present-day relationship between the US and China, Chan hopes to help us learn from the past and avoid future catastrophe.
List of contents
- 1: Introduction to the Dynamics of Conflict Contagion and Escalation
- 2: Local Rivalries as Possible Fuses for Larger Conflicts
- 3: Alliances as Balls and Chains on Conflict Contagion
- 4: The Backlash Effects of Self-Defeating Policies
- 5: The Dynamics of Sino-American Tension
- References
- Index
- 1: Introduction to the Dynamics of Conflict Contagion and Escalation
- 2: Local Rivalries as Possible Fuses for Larger Conflicts
- 3: Alliances as Balls and Chains on Conflict Contagion
- 4: The Backlash Effects of Self-Defeating Policies
- 5: The Dynamics of Sino-American Tension
- References
- Index
About the author
Steve Chan received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1976. He has taught at Bowling Green State University, University of Maryland, and Texas A&M University before arriving at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has had visiting teaching or research appointments in China, France, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan.
