Engagement in a costly and destructive war can be understood as the ‘punishment’ for entering into a dispute. Institutions that reduce the chance that disputes lead to war make this punishment less severe. This may incentivize hawkish political choices like militarization, and potentially o¤set the bene…ts of peace-brokering institutions. We analyze a simple model in which unmediated peace talks are effective at improving the chances of peace for a given distribution of military strength. But, once the effects on militarization are considered the presence of unmediated talks leads to a higher incidence of war. Not all con‡ict resolution institutions su¤er from this drawback. We identify a form of third-party mediation, inspired by the work of Myerson, and show that it can e¤ectively broker peace in disputes once they emerge, and also minimize the level of equilibrium militarization.

Dispute resolution institutions and strategic militarization

Morelli, Massimo;Squintani, Francesco
2019

Abstract

Engagement in a costly and destructive war can be understood as the ‘punishment’ for entering into a dispute. Institutions that reduce the chance that disputes lead to war make this punishment less severe. This may incentivize hawkish political choices like militarization, and potentially o¤set the bene…ts of peace-brokering institutions. We analyze a simple model in which unmediated peace talks are effective at improving the chances of peace for a given distribution of military strength. But, once the effects on militarization are considered the presence of unmediated talks leads to a higher incidence of war. Not all con‡ict resolution institutions su¤er from this drawback. We identify a form of third-party mediation, inspired by the work of Myerson, and show that it can e¤ectively broker peace in disputes once they emerge, and also minimize the level of equilibrium militarization.
2019
2018
Meirowitz, Adam; Morelli, Massimo; Ramsay, Kristopher W.; Squintani, Francesco
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
acceptance_jpe_militarization.pdf

non disponibili

Descrizione: lettera accettazione jpe
Tipologia: Allegato per valutazione Bocconi (Attachment for Bocconi evaluation)
Licenza: NON PUBBLICO - Accesso privato/ristretto
Dimensione 28.27 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
28.27 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri
article_jpe_militarization.pdf

accesso aperto

Descrizione: articolo accettato
Tipologia: Documento in Pre-print (Pre-print document)
Licenza: Creative commons
Dimensione 384.66 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
384.66 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri
700761.pdf

non disponibili

Descrizione: articolo
Tipologia: Pdf editoriale (Publisher's layout)
Licenza: NON PUBBLICO - Accesso privato/ristretto
Dimensione 656.81 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
656.81 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11565/4000810
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 14
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 15
social impact