Promotional Information

The causes of wars have received far more scholarly attention than their termination, yet ending them once started is a crucial issue both for theorists and policymakers. In How Wars End, Dan Reiter extends the bargaining model of war to resolve key discrepancies in its ability to explain termination. In the process, he offers a model of theoretical clarity and rich empirical case analysis. Reiter is one of the most consistently insightful scholars in security studies today, and his contribution on this issue is essential reading for anyone who cares about the problem of war. -- Stephen Biddle, Council on Foreign Relations A very fine book. How Wars End is the first serious attempt to integrate the information and commitment perspectives on war termination, and the first book that I am aware of to focus so systematically on the connection between war termination and war aims. It is hard to imagine how any course with a substantial focus on rationalist explanations of war could neglect to assign this book. -- Benjamin Valentino, Dartmouth College Integrating important recent strands of rationalist theorizing about war as a bargaining problem, Reiter synthesizes an original explanation for war termination that hinges on belligerents' expectations about the costs and benefits of continued fighting. This will be a widely read, influential book that will immediately become a standard work in a lively literature that is right at the heart of contemporary international relations scholarship. -- Jack L. Snyder, Columbia University

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Tables xi Acknowledgments xiii CHAPTER ONE: Ending Wars 1 CHAPTER TWO: Bargaining, Information, and Ending Wars 8 CHAPTER THREE: Credible Commitments and War Termination 22 CHAPTER FOUR: Conducting Empirical Tests 51 CHAPTER FIVE: The Korean War 63 CHAPTER SIX: The Allies, 1940-42 92 CHAPTER SEVEN: The Logic of War 121 Finland and the USSR, 1939-44 CHAPTER EIGHT: The American Civil War 140 CHAPTER NINE: Germany, 1917-18 165 CHAPTER TEN: Japan, 1944-45 186 CHAPTER ELEVEN: Conclusions 211 Notes 231 Bibliography 267 Index 289

About the Author

Dan Reiter is professor and chair of political science at Emory University. He is the author of "Crucible of Beliefs: Learning, Alliances, and World Wars" and the coauthor of "Democracies at War" (Princeton).

Reviews

Winner of the 2010 Best Book Award, Conflict Processes Section of the American Political Science Association Shortlisted for the 2010 Arthur Ross Book Award, Council on Foreign Relations Honorable Mention for the 2010 International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Book Award, International Studies Association One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2010 "Many social scientists have studied how wars start, but fewer have looked into how wars end... The work belongs in most college and university libraries."--Choice