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Recent research indicates that war initiations are influenced by a process of infectious contagion and that alliances may be the agent of contagion. However, it is evident that some alliances are more likely to spread war than others. This research is aimed at identifying those attributes of national alliance membership which tend to be associated with war participation. Using a revision of the SingerSmall data set on international alliances, the main findings of this research are that nations will be most apt to join their allies in a war when: (1) many of their allies are in the war; (2) the allies they join are minor powers; (3) they have relatively few alliance partners; (4) the alliance in question is a defensive alliance; (5) their alliance is relatively new; and (6) they have a relatively large number of alliances.
Siverson et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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