Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

Living Edition
| Editors: Ali Farazmand

Comparative Theories and Causes of War

  • Mario CocciaEmail author
Living reference work entry
First Online:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3842-1
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Synonyms

Conflict; Disputes; Struggle

Definition

War is a strategic activity of attacking using weapons and new technologies for resolving internal and/or international disputes or conflicts between two or more nations; between ethnic, social, and religious (organized) groups; etc., to cope with environmental threats and take advantage of important opportunities, generating at the same time a reduction of the freedom of other societies/groups and causing deaths, injured people, and/or social, economic, cultural, and/or ethnic damages.

Introduction

Scholars have investigated the causes of war with different theories based on approaches of philosophy, history, psychology, economics, demography, sociology, biology, etc. (Ackoff and Rovin 2003; Coyne and Mathers 2011; Gini 1921; Levy 2011). Wars can be due to manifold preconditions (factors that set the stage for war over the long run) that trigger the conflict in the presence of precipitants, specific events that immediately precede the...
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Copyright information

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.CNR – National Research Council of ItalyTorinoItaly