The causes of the second world war in Europe: A new scientific explanation

Few political scientists have attempted to apply general theories of war to explain specific cases. This analysis takes a new and non-realist explanation of war derived from a review of quantitative peace research conducted in the last thirty years to identify the general causes of the Second World War in Europe. Two causal paths to war are: theoretically delineated as typical of a pattern associated with the onset: of world war: one that centers around the use of power politics to resolve territorial disputes, and a second that makes the initial interstate war expand to include more and more actors.