Dispute inflation

Journal article

Abstract:: Much work has examined the phenomenon of dispute escalation, whereby the concrete measures state actors take edge them closer to war. Less attention has been devoted to the ways in which state actors’ perceptions of what is at stake in a dispute can also change, with important consequences for the likelihood of conflict. This paper examines the phenomenon of dispute inflation – wherein a contest over an object or issue assumes ever greater stakes and significance for its protagonists – and identifies three different mechanisms that can generate increasing non-material stakes. The upshot is that theoretically even a minor dispute can grow into a major conflict due to swelling stakes, especially when dispute inflation spirals. To illustrate these dynamics at work, this paper looks to recent developments in the dispute between the People’s Republic of China and Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands.

Files:: Hall_2021_dispute_inflation.pdf

(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 171.1KB, Terms of use)

Publisher:: SAGE Publications
Journal:: European Journal of International Relations More from this journal
Volume:: 27
Issue:: 4
Pages:: 1136-1161
Publication date:: 2021-09-22
Acceptance date:: 2021-08-17
DOI:: 10.1177/13540661211045112
EISSN:: 1460-3713
ISSN:: 1354-0661

Copyright holder:: Todd Hall.
Rights statement:: © The Author(s) 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record