Customer Reviews

A Study of Crisis

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This seminal work on Crisis in international relations is finally in paperback. The hardback version of this book is one of the best emphirical quantitative studies of crisis ands its impact on war and peace. The book gives an excellent overview of the definitional arguments related to crisis and then goes into detail on the theoretical questions brought up in the study of crisis. The authors skillfully buttress thier theoretical arguments by using the well respected ICB dataset to support them. The paperback improves on the original by putting all the cases and case descriptions on cdrom, making finding the cases you are interested in finding much easier and efficient. All in all this is an extermely useful starting point for any discussion of crisis as well as an excellent example of effective quantitative social science research.

This book, which I without hesitation grade an A, got me an A on my political science exam. If you need background info on a crisis, what caused it, who were affected by it, actors, mediation, just about anything concerning a crisis, this is the book for you. A must have for anyone who's serious about political science, or anyone interested in conflict and crisis in the international system. Don't think I've ever run into a more helpful and comprehensive book on this subject, and the supplied semi-searchable database is superb!!!

A Study of Crisis is a monumental work on the causes, process, and outcome of conflict. Brecher et al., combine rigourous quantitative analysis with pithy qualitative research on the numerous conflicts (both protracted and non-protracted)with and without war, which have engulfed states throughout time. Brecher and Wilkenfeld's Unified Model of Crisis has transcended the Levels of Analysis problem that has besieged international relations theory in the past. This book is a must have for serious scholars of peace and war.