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Power Politics and Wars without States
Author(s) -
Lemke Douglas
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
american journal of political science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.347
H-Index - 170
eISSN - 1540-5907
pISSN - 0092-5853
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2008.00342.x
Subject(s) - politics , power (physics) , neorealism (international relations) , international relations theory , order (exchange) , international relations , political science , explanatory power , state (computer science) , polarity (international relations) , positive economics , domain (mathematical analysis) , political economy , epistemology , sociology , law , economics , computer science , philosophy , mathematics , mathematical analysis , physics , genetics , finance , quantum mechanics , algorithm , biology , cell
In order to evaluate the applicability of power politics theories of war and international stability to interactions among nonstate actors, I test hypotheses from power transition theory and from neorealist arguments about systemic polarity against the behavior of 20 state and nonstate actors in nineteenth‐century South America. I find considerable support for two of the three hypotheses tested and conclude that existing IR theory has more explanatory power within the empirical domain of nonstate relations than critics of such theory claim.