Explaining War and Peace Case Studies and Necessary Condition Counterfactuals 1st Edition by Gary Goertz, Jack Levy 978-0415422321

Authors:Gary Goertz; Jack S. Levy (edt) , Series:Social Sciences [15] , Tags:Social Sciences , Author sort:Goertz, Gary & Levy, Jack S. , Languages:Languages:eng , Published:Published:Jun 2007 , Publisher:Taylor & Francis , Comments:Comments:This edited volume focuses on a common form of causal explanationof historical events, the use of “necessary condition counterfactuals”,which is neglected in the growing literature on the methodology ofqualitative analysis and case studies. The volume analyzes the causallogics of necessary and sufficient conditions, demonstrates the varietyof different ways in which necessary condition counterfactuals areused to explain the causes of individual events, and identifies errorscommonly made in applying this form of causal logic to individualevents. It includes discussions of causal chains, contingency, criticaljunctures and “powder keg” explanations, and the role of necessaryconditions in each. The volume focuses in particular on the applicationsof these concepts in a variety of competing explanations for two of thedefining events of the 20th century: the origins of World War I and theend of the Cold War.This book will be of great interest to students of qualitative analysis,World War I, the Cold War, international history and IR theory in general.