Wars Are Not Accidents – Managing Risk in the Face of Escalation
As crises become more common and intense, the role leaders play in pulling states away from the precipice of war becomes increasingly important. When tensions push states to the brink, decision-makers must play a high-stakes bargaining game and identify ways to pursue their aims and deter future harm while avoiding war. The tools of restraint lie in their hands, suggests Erik Lin-Greenberg in his
Foreign Affairs article. Although scholars describe different pathways to inadvertent war, their frameworks have a common trait: the assumption that policymakers have limited control over escalation. According to these researchers, states end up in wars they did not choose to fight, because of chance or chain reactions in the military. But this does not accord with reality. Even during the tensest moments of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union never accidentally fell into conflict. Instead, leaders always found a way out.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com
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