A Very Sharp Sword
The Influence of Military Capabilities on American Decisions to Use Force
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6284142 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Benjamin O Fordham (0000-0002-2558-3631, Department of Political Science, Binghamton University (SUNY), corresponding author) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 632-656 |
| Publication date | 2004-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Conflict Resolution (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-0027 • E-ISSN: 1552-8766 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022002704267935 |
| OpenAlex | W2099933585 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 28 |
| References cited | 45 |
Many international relations theorists suggest that improved military capabilities will make the use or threat of military force a more attractive policy choice. Tests of this argument are complicated because policy makers’anticipation of their future needs for military capabilities could also produce a relationship between capabilities and policy choice. Results show that military capabilities indeed increase the frequency with which force is used, but although past uses of force influence the construction of military capabilities, evidence that decision makers can effectively anticipate their current needs is weak. The results also suggest that the recent trend in force structure toward a smaller number of high-value weapons and relatively well-paid personnel has mitigated the relationship between military spending and the use of force
Anticipation (artificial intelligence · Argument (complex analysis · Economics · International law · Law and economics · Military personnel · Military science · Military threat · Political science · SWORD · Use of force · Value (mathematics · Computer Science · Defense, Military, and Policy Studies · International Development and Aid · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law
What’s in a name (political risk)? A review of political risk and foreign investment decisions
Explaining US unilateral military intervention in civil conflicts
Naval Forces and Civil-Military Relations
The tactics of foreign policy agenda-setting
The Persistence of US Conflict Behavior
The Hard Power of Natural Resources
U.S. Military Interventions and the Risk of Civil Conflict
Alliances as Contiguity in Spatial Models of Military Expenditures
National security in presidential time
Where You Sit Matters
Military Intervention in Civil Wars
Deciding to Intervene
IR technologies in the Israel Defence Forces
Shock and awe
Persistency of military spending and fiscal policy responses to Covid-19
Nato Burden Sharing in Libya
Introducing the Military Intervention Project
Power
Measuring Arms
European Military Capabilities
Planes, Trains, and Armored Mobiles
Goliath's Curse
Bound to follow? The Anglosphere and US-led coalitions of the willing, 1950–2001
Alliances, signals of support, and military effort
Global norms and major state behaviour
Who wants to be a major power? Explaining the expansion of foreign policy ambition
What goes up, must come down? The asymmetric effects of economic growth and international threat on military spending
The build-up of coercive capacities
The International System
The Causes of War
The War Puzzle
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Limited information estimators and exogeneity tests for simultaneous probit models
Inquiry, Logic, and International Politics
The Contribution of Expected Utility Theory to the Study of International Conflict
War and Change in World Politics
Democracies at War
Man, the State, and War
Imperialism
Reconstructing the correlates of war dataset on material capabilities of states, 1816–1985
Eugene
Windows of Opportunity
Deterrence and the Arms Race
Modeling U.S. Budgetary and Fiscal Policy Outcomes
Can Strategic Interaction Divert Diversionary Behavior? A Model of U.S. Conflict Propensity
The Politics of Threat Perception and the Use of Force
U.S. Defense Spending and the Soviet Estimate
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics
The Level-of-Analysis Problem in International Relations
Two-Stage Estimation of Nonrecursive Choice Models
A Linear Poisson Autoregressive Model
War Expansion and War Outcome
The Influence of Domestic and International Politics on the President's Use of Force
Arms Race Modeling
Signaling Versus the Balance of Power and Interests
Military Spending in the United States, Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China
Predatory Initiators and Changing Landscapes for Warfare
Militarized Interstate Disputes and United States Uses of Force
Presidential Decision Making and the Political Use of Military Force
Dynamic Modeling for Persistent Event-Count Time Series
Presidential Uses of Force during the Cold War
Policy Components of Arms Competition
Arms Races and Dispute Escalation
Modeling the Size of Wars
Reconfiguring The Arms Race-War Debate
Furthering the Investigation into the Effects of Arms Buildups
Differential Paths to Parity
The President and the Political Use of Force
Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick? Veterans in the Political Elite and the American Use of Force
| Unique citing works | 28 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,47 |
| Citation span | 2007 - 2025 (19) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 28 |