Reputation, Conflict, and War

This chapter focuses on two particular questions relating to the role of reputation and violence. The first is whether a reputation for past violence on the part of a state influences the onset ofnewviolence involving that state.This is the first stage of militarized conflict, the initiation of disputes. The second question is whether a reputation for escalating violence to full-blown war affects the likelihood that future disputes involving that state will be more likely to escalate to war as well. The results indicate that the hostile reputational histories increase the likelihood of conflict, and that conflict will escalate to war.