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.