What Else Causes War?
Bruce Russett Randall Forsberg’s smart, perceptive diagnosis of the state of the international system is about right, in my opinion. But her prescription, while good as far as it goes, is in my view incomplete. At several points in her essay she correctly attributes the decline in major war between countries to three great changes: military technology, increasing wealth, and the democratization of political values and institutions. Her prescription to extend this decline, however, focuses overwhelmingly on measures of arms control and disarmament, with scarce attention to enhancing the other beneficial changes. It may well be that the great powers can and will reduce their own arsenals of mass destruction, in a way that will reinforce one another’s wish to do so and serve as an example to lesser powers. Possibly they can even reach collective agreements to reduce arms sales to lesser powers whose enhanced military capabilities, Forsberg sagely notes, ultimately constitute the greatest
