NOTES

1 For a review of the literature on the political economy of war for that period, see Le Billon, 2000; Humphreys, 2002.

2 The leading political argument of 'democratic peace', for example, does not stand to the test of poverty: democracy does not shield poor coun­tries from the scourge of war (Mousseau et al., 2001).

3 The main definition of armed conflicts used in quantitative studies is 'a contested incompatibility that concerns government and/or territory where the use of armed force between two parties, of which at least one is the government of a state, results in at least 25 battle-related deaths' (UCDP/PRIO, 2006). A higher threshold of 1000 battle-related deaths is also used. A human rights or human security perspective would assert that conflicts and violence at the micro-scale is also significant.

4 The global growth collapse of the 1930s was largely defined by inadequate monetary policies, free trade restrictions, and capital repatriation (Crafts, 2000). Its impact was aggravated by the historical context set by the First World War. Arguments that war onset by major powers is precipitated by brief economic downturn, however, have been rejected by Thompson (1982).

5 Early quantitative studies of wars found no evidence that commerce creates bonds pacifying nations, but observed that sharp declines in trade set the economic context of the Second World War (Richardson, 1960a, b).

6 Adapted from (Humphreys, 2005).