Costs and Demands

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Abstract
This research develops the concept of an international system cost as a necessary complement to the domestic cost component generated by Bueno de Mesquita and Lalman in War and Reason, published in 1992. The addition of such a cost to the decision calculus of leaders can persuade them to favor the status quo over the imposition of a likely attainable demand. Evidence is found supporting the significant constraining power of the international status quo as it relates to the dispute proneness of the system. Furthermore, the perception held by the international community about states committing initial acts of aggression varies from its perception of those who have been the targets of such aggression. This situational reality acts to confer dissimilar action costs on the imposition of demands relative to counterdemands.