The onset and initiation of disputes

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Abstract
This paper discusses the processes leading to the initiation of militarized interstate disputes (MIDs). It first explores some of the basic attributes of MIDs, and then reviews various explanations concerning the factors that are said to give rise to dispute initiation at three levels of analysis: the systemic level, the dyadic level, and the national level. A review of the empirical evidence of the various explanations on dispute initiation suggests the following conclusions (a) systemic explanations of dispute onsets are not consistently supported by evidence, in fact, most of the factors mentioned by such explanations as “causes” of MIDs show no relation to the data, (b) the same can be said about explanations within the realpolitik tradition, namely, factors consistent with such theories show no consistent effect on dispute initiation, (c) explanations focusing on the dyadic and national level show considerable promise as valid explanations of dispute initiation; of particular significance are factors that relate domestic structures and domestic political processes to dispute initiation. The implications of these findings for the study of international conflict are discussed.

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