The Rise And Fall Of Civilization: Critical Analysis

War is commonly defined as an armed conflict between two entities, one that dates back to the beginning of mankind’s very existence. During this time many have attempted to explain the complex nature of war, its actors, and its origins. There are two authors in particular who have made critical analysis on the topic of war within the international system, more specifically the nature of balanced power and hegemonic war and the role that perception plays in conflict. Glipin asserts that disequilibrium will result in a hegemonic war due to inferior civilizations striking falling civilizations. Whereas Jervis asserts that misperception is the driving cause of war. I argue that it is not an inferior civilization, but rather different economies

He goes on to recall that historical records reveal that if the dominant power fails in this attempt, the disequilibrium will be resolved by war; citing Shepard Clough in reference to his book, The Rise and Fall of Civilization, he suggests that cultures with inferior civilization but growing economic power have always attacked the most civilized cultures during their economic decline. I disagree with the premise of this argument based on the notion that there is no such thing as an inferior civilization. However, that’s not to say that growing economic powers have not attacked other economies at their decline because historically that has been the case as exemplified during the last two centuries of the Roman

This is important when analyzing his theory on misperception because it begs the question, how crucial is misperception in the way in which war occurs? Similar to Gilpin, Jervis perceives the world to be anarchic, so for example, in an effort to further establish state defense, another state might perceive this as offensive and take an aggressive stance. However, while it is important to acknowledge the factor that misperception plays in the realm of international relations, in most cases if one were to isolate the misperceptions of one’s intentions, rarely will it instigate war. It can be argued that that cause of war isn’t misperception, but rather