International Relations 101 Full Course - International Relations 101 (#24): The Causes of War

This lecture explains how the cause of any war is two fold: grievance and bargaining problem. If you have one without the other, peace should prevail. Whereas history textbooks and common narratives of wars tend to focus on grievances, political science research focuses on bargaining problems. The reason is that there are only a couple of types of bargaining problems, whereas the sources of grievances are almost limitless. For more on bargaining problems as causes of war, check out this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKI1h_nAkaQrvKPtuPMXkU4yXCDSp_NHh 0:00 The Bargaining Approach to War 2:16 What Caused the American Revolution? 2:50 What Caused the American Civil War? 3:24 What Caused World War I? 4:07 What Caused World War II? 4:35 What Caused the Iraq-Kuwait War? 5:17 What Caused the Syrian Civil War? 5:37 War's Inefficiency Puzzle 6:09 The Recipe for War 7:17 Why Focus on Bargaining Problems? Photo of German colonies licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Photo of Bashar al-Assad licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/