Interstate war in international relations and theoretical analysis of the causes of wars

This thesis is prepared for bringing an explanation to the causes of war, through theoretical approaches. The particular theories of international relations and the findings of war studies were used for this research. War is multi-causal phenomenon. The states have been strived against each other in different geographies and with different causes for thousands of years. The issue expounded in this research is that why nations confict. War proneness is an issue which is examined in individuals, regime type of states and structure of international system. The nature of individuals, psychological background, perceptive attitudes effect the outbreak of war. Also, regime type of states, administrative networks, decisional processes, size of territory, economic structures, population, internal displeasures increase or decrease the war proneness of states. Changes of power distribution among the states by creating anarchical or hierarchical structure also have an impact regarding the onset of systemic wars. It means that there are great deal of variable which effect the outbreak of war. The changes in these variables make the states more prone to warfare. It is seen in retrospect that states fight due to many of different causes. The most frequent causes of war are examined in this studies by using historical data and records.The theoretical assumptions on the causes of war are brought forward by comparing them with our findings. For that purpose we benefited from the quantitative research methodology of behavioralists. Keyword 1. War 2. Theories of War 3. Causes of War 4. War Studies 5. War Typology