Birth Legacies: The Influence of State Emergence on State Behavior
16 Pages Posted: 1 Aug 2011 Last revised: 25 Aug 2011
Date Written: 2011
Abstract
International Relations (IR) researchers study the interactions of states in the international system. Excluded from almost all such analyses is consideration of how those interacting states became members of the international system. Their existence is simply assumed. State Making (SM) researchers, in contrast, focus on the formation experiences of states and other autonomous political entities trying to become states. SM scholars anticipate that an entity’s formation will influence subsequent experiences. In this paper I use SM insights to investigate whether IR behaviors of states are influenced by how they came into existence. I describe a measure of “birth legacy,” which I then show influences war participation and outcomes, national growth and development, and state failure. While the measures and analyses offer a crude first-cut at combining IR and SM research, the paper concludes with discussion of the implications such combinations for future studies of state interactions in the international system.
Keywords: State birth, conflict, development
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