Peace and War: Armed Conflicts and International Order 1648-1989

Jul 6, 2026

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Peace and war: Armed conflicts and international order 1648-1989 presents a historical analysis of why conflict arises, how attitudes toward war evolve, and how attempts to build international orders and institutions have sought to manage, control, or prevent crises. Kalevi Holsti evaluates prior war literature, outlines an international politics framework, and examines 177 international wars from the European and global state systems beginning with the Treaties of Münster and Osnabrück in 1648.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages397

Reading Time16 h 40 min

Preface

On the Study of War

Explanatory configurations

The promises and pitfalls of ecological variables

The meanings of war

What men fight about: issues and international conflict

A map of a map

Defining issues

Data sources: geographical and temporal domains

Attitudes toward war

Issues, war, and peace: creating international orders

Münster and Osnabrück, 1648: Peace by Pieces

Planning for peace

Negotiations at Münster and Osnabrück

War and Peace in the Era of the Heroic Warriors, 1648-1713

Issues that generated wars

CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 1 MYLES L.C.ROBERTSONSoviet policy towards JapanAn analysis of trends in the 1970s and 1980s 2 FRIEDRICH V.KRATOCHWILRules,norms,and decisions On the conditions of practical and legal reasoning in international relationsand domestic affairs 3 MICHAEL NICHOLSONFormal theories in international relations 4 MICHAEL C.PUGHThe ANZUS crisis,nuclear visiting and deterrence 5 STEPHEN GILEAmerican hegemony and the Trilateral Commission 6 HIDEMI SUGANAMIThe domestic analogy and world order proposals 7 IAN CLARK The hierarchy of statesReform and resistance in the international order 8 ZEEV MAOZNational choices and international processes 9 wILLIAM BLOOMPersonal identity,national identity and international relations 10 JAMES MAYALLNationalism and international society 11 JAMES BARBER and jJOHN BARRATTSouth Africa's foreign policyThe search for status and security 1945-1988 12 ROBERTH.JACKSON Quasi-states:sovereignty,international relations and the ThirdWorld 13 SAKI DOCKRILLBritain's policy for West German rearmament 1950-1955 14 KALEVI J.HOLSTIPeace and war:armed conflicts and international order 1648-1989 CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN INTERNATIONALRELATIONS:14 # PEACE AND WAR:ARMED CONFLICTS AND INTERNATIONALORDER 1648-1989 Editorial Board STEVE SMITH(Managing editor) LAWRENCE FREEDMAN FRED HALLIDAYKALEVI J.HOLSTI ROY JONESROBERT S.LITWAKPETER NAILOR WILLIAM OLSON ADAM ROBERTSJOHN SIMPSON JACK SPENCE ROGER TOOZEJOHNA.VASQUEZ JOHN VINCENT Cambridge Studies in International Relations is a joint initiative of CambridgeUniversity Press and the British International Studies Association(BISA).Theseries will include a wide range of material,from undergraduate textbooks andsurveys to research-based monographs and collaborative volumes.The aim ofthe series is to publish the best new scholarship in International Studies fromEurope,North America and the rest of the world. For centuries political theorists,philosophers,and historians have asked whywar occurs.Innumerable books have been published on the question,yet nonehas proved authoritative.In this book,Kalevi Holsti approaches the issue froma new perspective.He asks three interrelated questions that have not previ-ously received systematic analysis.What issues generate conflict?How haveattitudes toward war changed?And what attempts have been made histori-cally to create international orders and institutions that can manage,control,orprevent international conflicts and crises? Professor Holsti begins by assessing the achievements and shortfalls of thevoluminous literature of war,and outlines the model of international politicsthat informs his study.Then,starting with the Treaties of Münster and Os-nabrück of 1648,he examines 177 international wars from the European andglobal states systems.Through these cases,he identifies a range of conflict-producing issues and how these,as well as the attitudes of policy-makers tothe use of force,have changed over the last 350 years.He demonstrates howthe great peacemaking efforts of 1648,1713,1815,1919,and 1945 involvedimplicit and explicit theories of international relations.The new orders estab-lished in those watershed peace conferences attempted to solve the issues ofthe past,yet few successfully anticipated those of the future.Indeed,somecreated the basis of new conflicts. Peace and war:armed conflicts and international order 1648-1989 is a major studyof the origins of war and the foundations of peace in the last350 years.It will bean important text for students of and specialists in diplomatic history,war andpeace studies,international relations,international conflict,and politicalstudies. # PEACE AND WAR:ARMED CONFLICTSAND INTERNATIONALORDER 1648-1989 KALEVI J.HOLSTI Professor,Department of Political Science,University of British Columbia CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge,New York,Melbourne,Madrid,Cape Town,Singapore,Sao Pa

FAQs

What three interrelated questions guide Holsti’s study of war and peace?

Holsti examines what issues generate conflict, how attitudes toward war change, and what historical attempts were made to create international orders and institutions to manage, control, or prevent conflicts and crises.

How does the book approach its historical evidence?

Starting with the Treaties of Münster and Osnabrück (1648), it analyzes 177 international wars across European and global state-system cases, tracing changes over roughly 350 years.

What do the major peacemaking efforts after watershed conferences aim to explain?

The book argues that peacemaking efforts in 1648, 1713, 1815, 1919, and 1945 embodied implicit and explicit theories of international relations, with new orders that sometimes addressed past issues yet often failed to anticipate future conflicts.

Jul 6, 2026

Upload by Violet