Scare Tactics: The Politics of International Rivalry. By Michael P. Colaresi. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2005. 232p. $34.95.

The emerging research program of international rivalries is an important branch of study within the international relations subfield. Rather than focus on rare events such as war, this research program seeks to understand the dynamics at work for what many scholars perceive to be the most dangerous pairs of interstate enemies in the system. Those enemies are historical rivals, typically coded as strategic or enduring rivals. In a rivalry, hatred is endemic and cooperation may be rare. These actors clearly are of a different sort than the rest of the system and need to be studied in their historical context.