The seduction of power: Serious international disputes and the power status of nations, 1900–1976

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Abstract
More‐powerful nations are more war‐prone. The following study tries to replicate this result, obtained by Stuart Bremer (1980), for the serious dispute involvement of nations. The analysis reveals that, in accordance with Bremer, the relationship does not necessarily hold for any short period of time. Over the long run, however, the hypothesis is corroborated. Using a linear regression model for testing the relationship between power status, defined by a six‐dimensional power index, and average serious dispute involvement per five years, the relationship is relatively weak. But, using a non‐linear regression model to predict the average frequency of disputes initiated per five years we explain almost one third of the variance. The model does even better for predicting the average frequency of joining disputes per five years: Over 60 percent of the variance is explained.