What Causes War [Paperback]

Greg Cashman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0669212156 | ISBN-13: 978-0669212150 | Publication Date: June 1998

Breaks the theories of international conflict down into categories: those that seek to explain whether man is naturally warlike; those which focus on political processes within states; those addressing national and international conflict; and those which examine the world order itself.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Greg Cashman is Professor of Political Science at Salisbury State University. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Lexington Books (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0669212156
• ISBN-13: 978-0669212150
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,797,522 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Causes War?, May 16, 2000

By 

Michael Haslup (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Causes War (Paperback)

Dr. Cashman's book provides the most complete analysis of the various theories regarding the causes of war. Considering the magnitude of the topic the book is very concise and truly offers a thorough "review of the literature" as the author phrases it. The reader need not be a student of political science or have a degree in the field to follow the language used in the volume. From the Nature v. Nurture debate to Groupthink the book provides an examination of the theories of various schools of thought on what causes war. I recommend this work to anyone interested in the subject!

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's like having one of Dr. Cashman's lectures in book form, June 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: What Causes War (Paperback)

With this book, I have the added advantage of knowing the author personally. In his book, Dr. Cashman does exactly what he states in the introduction--gives students of Political Science a 'review of the literature' in the causes of international conflict. It is an altogether servicable text that I found extremely helpful in his class. The book reflects his deep knowledge of his specialty of international relations, and his ability to present the material in an organized and methodical fashion. There are really no deep revelations in this book, becasue thats not really the point. It is a book designed to keep students taking these kinds of courses sane by providing them with one major text, and allowing for new and supplemental information to be added. I highly recommend it.

9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heroic effort, but simplistic and biassed., April 25, 2005

By 

Epops (usa) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: What Causes War?: An Introduction to Theories of International Conflict (Paperback)

My copy of this book was published in 1993, but the 1999 edition available on Amazon appears to be the same book, a reissue, not a revision.

Prof. Cashman has performed the heroic task of creating a textbook accessible to undergraduates on a subject that continues to perplex the Henry Kissingers and Robert McNamaras of the world. He is honest enough to say in his summary chapter that he does not know the answer to the question he poses, nor does anyone else. In the process of coming to that conclusion, he provides an excellent survey of the various theoretical approaches to the problem of the causation of war, an accomplishment for which he gets 5 stars.

However, I have some significant criticisms of this book, which seems to be a standard text for undergraduate courses on warfare. My concerns are Prof. Cashman's tendency toward simplistic thinking and, for want of a better term, his "liberal" bias. By "liberal", I mean a belief that human beings are basically good natured creatures who will behave nicely if left unmolested by politicians and capitalist expoiters. This is the view espoused by Rousseau and by those thinkers on the Left who have followed in Rousseau's footsteps.

His belief that "the central imperative of our times is therefore to avoid wars of mass destruction; all other goals suffer in comparison" is not espoused by several other nation-states with which we share Planet Earth, not to mention the practitioners of terror. This leaves him in the end unprepared to follow the logic of his own research and study: If "one theme of this book is that if we can understand the causes of war, we should be better able to prevent their occurance", then Prof. Cashman should be able to come up with a better ending to his book than an exhortion to national leaders to "Do the right thing." Winston Churchill would no doubt have appreciated that insight during The Battle of Britain, but he might have wanted a little more detail as to how to determine just exactly what IS the "right thing". But Prof. Cashman admits that he can't tell us, so why does he get our hopes up in the first place?

Another concern is that Prof. Cashman frequently engages in evasive rhetorical tactics by grossly mischaracterizing the position of those with whom he disagrees. For example, he states:

"Those who believe that the fundamental cause of war is that humans are naturally aggressive take the position that all men (and women) are the same."

This is a caricature of the argument he opposes, not a fair statement of it, as would be obvious to anyone who has read Thucydides, Machiavelli, Calvin, Hobbes, Freud, and the framers of the American Constitution, not to mention numerous modern philosophers and historians and of course the sociobiologists. By resorting to such a caricature he undercuts the validity of his criticism and gravely weakens his overall argument.

I was motivated to write this review by the thought that Prof. Cashman has the question wrong. It's obvious to all but the most extreme believer in the "tabula rasa" that war is caused by human misbehavior of great variety and ingenuity. The real question is: What causes peace? And are we capable of finding a better answer than that of the Roman Vegetius: "Si vis pacem, para bellum": "If you would have peace, prepare for war"?

So far, the realistic answer is "No".

Should we continue to look for a better answer? Yes, but not at the price of making ourselves vulnerable to attack.

As a wise person once said, "The only thing worse than a war won is a war lost."