POL208Y5 Chapter Notes -Gulf War, Arms Control
Document Summary
This is a very important question because assumptions about the extent of rationality in decisions for the persian gulf war underlie policy debates on a range of subjects from deterrence and invasion to peacekeeping. Arguments about rationality also underlie various academic debates about the general causes of a war like the gulf war and the methodologies to study them (levy & thompson, 2010). There are various assumptions about rationality that underlie a number of policy and debates. Those who believe that deterrence is a path, accept that decisions to initiate war are deliberate and even rational. If individuals are mostly rational then they very well can effectively allow the use of arms, alliances, and deployments to increase the costs of war. On the other hand, arguments for greater transparency, for hyper nationalism, and arms control often assume that war is engrained in misrepresentation and miscalculation.
