Crisis bargaining and the state

Crisis Bargaining and the State argues that the influence of a state's bargaining behavior on its opponents foreign policy depends on the nature of the opposing government - its institutional structures and the strategic beliefs of its leaders. The author shows in three detailed case studies - the Crimean War crisis, the Fashoda crisis, and the Berlin crisis - the significance of domestic factors to questions of war and peace.

Peterson offers a comprehensive analysis of the domestic politics of crisis bargaining. She uses differences in state structure to explain variations in foreign policy processes and outcomes. By introducing domestic structure as a crucial intervening variable between the international environment and a state's foreign policy during an acute conflict, Peterson shows how existing cognitive and bureaucratic approaches provide complementary, not competing, explanations of crisis bargaining.