Estimating Outcomes and Consequences of Interstate Wars.
Abstract
Past errors in predicting victors and vanquished in international wars are rooted in major defects of available measures of national capabilities. The principal source of difficulties has been the absence of a direct estimation of the efficacy of the political system, for there has been no rigorous way to evaluate the real effectiveness of governments. Techniques for appraising the performance of national economies cannot be applied to the performance of political systems. If one could measure political capacity and combine such an estimate with other data relating social and economic performance, long in use to measure national capabilities, one would be able to estimate with sufficient accuracy the strengths of nations and predict the outcome of any total but non-nuclear war. The four conflicts analyzed in this study are: (1) The wars between the Arabs and Israelis. (2) The war between North and South Vietnam, with the assistance of the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, and the United States. (3) The very brief struggle between India and China in the Himalayas. (4) The Korean war, in which North and South Korea were the combatants of record, but where the major portion of the fighting was done by the United States and the People's Republic of China.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1977
- Accession Number
- ADA051655
Entities
People
- A. F. K. Organski
- Jacek Kugler
Organizations
- University of Michigan