The study of international relations has suffered from an oversupply of theories and a lack of comprehensive, comparative tests between them. In The Behavioral Origins of War, Bennett and Stam draw from the systemic, dyadic, and monadic levels of analysis to evaluate the relative strength of theories ranging from hegemonic stability to expected utility to democratic peace. Their expansive study challenges the conventional view of theories of war as competing explanations for observed behavior, and their argument incorporates key variables from several theories to account for the multiplicity of causes for war. They find that while many theories contribute to the overall prediction of international conflict, most are quite weak individually. By focusing on the relative explanatory power of a valid set of theories, Bennett and Stam chart a course for cumulative scientific progress in international relations.
D. Scott Bennett is Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at The Pennsylvania State University. Allan C. Stam is Associate Professor in the Government Department at Dartmouth College.