A Century of International Crisis Behavior

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A Century of International Crisis Behavior

edited by Jonathan Wilkenfeld, Kyle Beardsley and Patrick James

University of Michigan Press, 2026

ISBNs

Cloth: 978-0-472-07818-9

Paper: 978-0-472-05818-1

eISBN: 978-0-472-90598-0 (OA)

About the Book

Perhaps more than ever, we need to invest in the study of the causes and consequences of crises. Since its founding in 1975, the International Crisis Behavior (ICB) Project has aimed to better equip academics, policymakers, and the next generation of engaged citizens to make sense of why crises arise and how they can be more effectively managed and prevented. The ICB Project’s data holdings consist of full-length qualitative case studies, along with an expanding range of quantitative datasets that include information regarding the characteristics of the states in crisis, crisis behavior, attempts at third-party crisis management, the role of nonstate actors, and the system-level context.

A Century of International Crisis Behavior summarizes the evolving patterns of international crisis behavior in the more than 500 cases cataloged since 1918, provides an accounting of the state of the scholarship to make sense of the patterns, and presents new findings that advance our understanding. Chapters are grouped according to their level of analysis: studies of systems, dyads, and states. The authors highlight what we have learned and what we have yet to learn regarding the prevention, escalation, and de-escalation of international crises.

About the Author

Jonathan Wilkenfeld is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland.
Kyle Beardsley is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Duke University.
Patrick James is Dean’s Professor Emeritus of International Relations at the University of Southern California.

Reviews

“A Century of International Crisis Behavior extends the rich International Crisis Behavior (ICB) dataset for the academic and policy communities, using core variables and adding new cases. There are very few projects that have sustained data collection for more than forty years. The quality of the editors and of their data collection is the gold standard in international conflict, crisis, and war.”

— Steven Lobell, University of Utah

“A Century of International Crisis Behavior is a must-read for all students intending to study international crises in the field. It will not only inspire scholars to utilize the ICB data but also encourage them to broaden the scope of their studies beyond the ICB data.”— Kai He, Griffith University