Attack and Conquer? International Anarchy and the Offense-Defense-Deterrence Balance

Overview

Karen Ruth Adams of Louisiana State University lays out the technological causes of offense, defense, and deterrence dominance and assesses the ability of these factors to explain attack and conquest among great powers and nuclear states from 1800 to 1997. According to Adams, “this technological argument is a significant predictor of both conquest and attack.” She discusses the significance of her findings for many issues, including the likelihood of nuclear states attacking and conquering nonnuclear states as well as the spread of nuclear weapons.

For the codebook used in this article, please see the first attachment.

For the data set used in this article, please see the second attachment.
Please note: This data set is in Microsoft Excel format using U.S. settings.