Steps to war
The steps-to-war explanation is a theory of international relations based on the issue paradigm that empirically establishes the war-proneness of territorial issues and the use of power politics practices. The framework is established by Paul D. Senese and John A. Vasquez in the 2008 book The Steps to War: An Empirical Study, though many of the key insights, such as the role of alliances, arms races, and territory in promoting escalation of disputes to war, have been elaborated in previous works.