Local Rivalries as Possible Fuses for Larger Conflicts

Abstract Local feuds can sometimes trigger larger regional and even global conflicts. This chapter elaborates on the idea of fuses for starting a large, intense, multilateral conflict. It calls attention to a series of intriguing, even counterintuitive, findings from the literature of interstate conflicts. Specifically, a small number of states are responsible for a very large portion of these conflicts. They get into armed disputes repeatedly. Moreover, the outcomes of previous encounters do not appear to affect conflict recidivism—even when defeated in prior wars, a country is still prone to start another round of conflict. Finally, most of these conflicts involve asymmetric dyads—that is, two disputants with lopsided capability differences between them—and even more surprisingly, they are often initiated by the weaker side.