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Arms Races and Cooperation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

George W. Downs
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis
David M. Rocke
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis
Randolph M. Siverson
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis
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Abstract

States interested in reducing the level of arms competition with a rival can employ a variety of strategies designed to promote cooperation. We examine the ability of three important strategies—unilateral action, tacit bargaining, and negotiation—to reduce the intensity of arms races motivated by different patterns of preferences and complicated by different sources of uncertainty. The latter include strategic misrepresentation, imperfect intelligence, problems of interpretation, and problems of control. Examples are drawn from 19th- and 20th-century arms races that did not result in war.

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Type
Part II: Applications to Security Affairs
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1985

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