Roots of War: Wanting Power, Seeing Threat, Justifying Force

by David G. Winter

Overview

Ever since Thucydides pondered reasons for the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, writers, philosophers, and social scientists have tried to identify factors that promote conflict escalation: for example, history (tomorrow's wars are often rooted in yesterday's conflicts), changing balance of power among nations, or domestic political forces. In the end, however, these "causes" are constructed by human beings and involve the memories, emotions, and motives of both the leaders and the led. In July 1914, the long-standing peace of Europe was shattered when the Sarajevo assassinations quickly escalated to World War I. In contrast, at the height of the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis could have easily plunged the world into a thermonuclear world war, but was ultimately peacefully resolved. Why the different outcomes? In Roots of War: Wanting Power, Seeing Threat, Justifying Force, David G. Winter identifies three psychological factors that contributed to the differences in these historical outcomes: the desire for power, exaggerated perception of the opponent's threat, and justification for using military force. Several lines of research establish how these factors lead to escalation and war: comparative archival studies of "war" and "peace" crises, laboratory experiments on threat perception, and surveys of factors leading people to believe that a particular war is "just." The research findings in Roots of War also demonstrate the importance of power in preserving peace through diplomatic interventions, past and present.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199355778
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

David G. Winter is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Michigan. He is a graduate of Harvard and Oxford Universities, and is a former Rhodes Scholar and Guggenheim Fellow. He has carried out extensive research on several political psychology topics, including power motivation, war and peace, political leadership, and authoritarianism in political life. He is a past president of the International Society of Political Psychology.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: A Tale of Two Crises Chapter 2: Reasons, Motives, and Causes Chapter 3: On Power Chapter 4: Power Motivation in War and Peace Chapter 5: Perceiving and Misperceiving Power Chapter 6: Justifying Power and War Chapter 7: Toward Peace I: Taming Power Drives Chapter 8: Toward Peace II: Taming Societies, Perceptions, and Justifications

Editorial Reviews

"A very topical primer on why nations go to war, written in an engaging style by one of America's leading authorities in the field. Winter draws on his extensive study of history and political psychology to explain why some international crises are defused while others escalate uncontrollably. At a time when the United States could be facing a 'slow motion Cuban Missile Crisis' with North Korea, Winter shows how much depends on the actions and personalities of individual leaders, flawed human beings all. Highly recommended."
—Michael Dobbs, author of One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War

"Why are some threats to peace resolved while similar threats spiral into war? Winter explores this question profoundly in Roots of War, bridging his deep reading of history with his own rich psychological studies. Among its many contributions, Roots of War helps us see how hard it is to understand an enemy's motives and how our own motives can distort that understanding and lead to war. I hope this important book is read by many statesmen and others in positions to help decide whether to call a nation to war, as doing so will encourage greater reflection and caution."
—Sam McFarland, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Western Kentucky University

"Roots of War is an analytically powerful and policy-relevant treatment that will be of interest to professionals and members of the educated public alike. Winter is a leading psychologist, but he draws on political science and history as well to delve into the myriad ways that the drive for power causes wars, and how it can be tamed."
—Robert Jervis, author of How Statesmen Think: The Psychology of International Politics

"Winter (Michigan) asks a crucial and (always) timely question: Why do some international conflicts escalate into full-blown wars while others do not? The book offers a layered answer steeped in the psychology of power. Winter uses a variety of methods to get inside the heads of political leaders, including official rhetoric and less formal accounts of key decisions. Winter also examines the causes and consequences of civilian anger and anxiety. All this begins with a fascinating case study of leadership decisions behind the catastrophic First World War in contrast to the diffused Cuban Missile Crisis. Winter then launches into an unusually deep literature review on the causes of war from a variety of fields.

The ambitious nature of the project is evident through the repeated engagement of the field in subsequent chapters as well. One particularly compelling theme is the political psychology behind mutual threat exaggeration. The final two chapters offer a variety of avenues for future research and learning the lessons of history, including indicators of creeping authoritarianism, utilizing diplomacy, and noting how the status of women and levels of education matter in these equations." —CHOICE

"A wide-ranging, expansive book on the subject of power and war"

— Journal of Political Psychology

"One doesn't need to reach far to find things to admire in this book. For much of the book, Winter's analysis rests on a solid foundation of dozens of studies conducted by him and his colleagues over several decades. These studies of power motivation, threat perception, and justification do more than summarize Winter's work over the course of his career; they also present a model for younger scholars to emulate and a blueprint for years of future research."

— Choice

From the Publisher