Arms races, arms control and conflict analysis: contributions from pece science and peace economics

This book introduces the reader to the work in several disciplines that has contributed to an understanding of how arms races develop and may be controlled. The book draws in particular on new insights from recent analytical developments in economics. The text begins with an extensive survey of arms race models, from the classic Richardson model to models exploring the effects of factors such as the domestic and international economic environment, public opinion and party politics, and weapons technology and information development. It then moves on to an examination of the processes of individual and group decision making and problem solving, in both crisis and noncrisis conditions, drawing on work in economics, operations research, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. The particular behavior of a political leader attempting to select an optimal arms expenditure policy is then analyzed, and the traditional principles of arms negotiation and national security reasoning are reviewed. The role of world systems models in providing data to support particular policies is examined, and the strengths and limitations of several models, including the LINK and GLOBUS models, are explored.
Building upon this diverse body of work, the author moves on to develop a framework for conflict management with which to approach a variety of conflict situations. This procedure is then applied to the U.S.-Soviet arms control conflict. Technical mathematical material is confined largely to foot notes, appendixes, and the last four chapters, which develop at a more advanced level several of the directions pursued earlier in the book.
Demonstrating how work in a broad range of fields can be pulled together in the analysis of conflict, this book not only provides the reader with a general introduction to the principles of conflict analysis, but lays a methodological foundation for the further development of the interdisciplinary field of Peace Science.