This pioneering book explains the causes of war through a sustained combination of theoretical insights and detailed case studies. Using the major theories of international conflict as a guide to examine contemporary examples of the outbreak of war, Cashman and Robinson find that while all wars have multiple causes, these factors typically combine in identifiable 'dangerous patterns.' In assessing and comparing these patterns, this is the only undergraduate text to systematically join detailed case studies to the theories and empirical research carried out by political scientists on the causes of war. Through the examples of World War I, World War II in the Pacific, the Six-Day War, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the Iran-Iraq War, and the Iraq War of 2003, the authors uncover the complex multilevel processes by which disputes between countries evolve into bloody conflicts.