Associate Fellow
The deadliest and most destabilizing wars in history all developed from initial clashes between the world’s most formidable military powers and their much weaker neighbors (e.g. Austria-Hungary vs. Serbia in 1914). Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the looming war threat between China and Taiwan highlight the enduring need for a systematic and well-grounded understanding of military conflict between unequal neighbors. I identify how unequal neighbors differ from other state pairs in international politics, systematize patterns of war and peace between them, and trace the causes of these patterns.