Cooperation and Conflict in Foreign Policy Behavior: Reaction and Memory

This study examines the dynamics of international cooperation and conflict in the foreign policy of a selected number of nations during the contemporary era. Two specific types of conceptions are developed and examined empirically. The first of these is based on the idea that conflict and cooperation behaviors are involved in separate dynamics, based upon long- and short-term institutional memory and upon reactivity. The second broad model examines hypotheses that cooperation and conflict interact with one another as the evolve over time. The first model, the behavior-begets-behavior conception, is more substantially supported by empirical evidence than is the mix of behaviors-begets-mix of behaviors model. In large part, these results are upheld across two major collections of event interaction data, the World Event Interaction Survey (WEIS) and the Conflict and Peace Data Bank (COPDAB). Thus, it appears that adequate understanding of contemporary foreign policy should be based upon the high degree of reactivity which exists among contemporary nation-states.