Abstract
<jats:p>This study examines the relationship between military rule and the initiation of interstate wars. The prevailing view in academic literature holds that the involvement of the military in political power increases the frequency of armed conflicts between states. This paper aims to empirically test whether military governments are indeed more likely to initiate interstate wars compared to other types of autocracies, and to assess the validity of the claim that military dictatorships are more prone than military regimes to initiating interstate armed conflicts and wars. To this end, a list of armed interstate conflicts from 1946 to 2007 was compiled, and the initiator states were categorized by their political regime type to identify potential correlations. Conflict data were drawn from the Correlates of War project. For the purpose of this study, a list of 38 interstate conflicts occurring between 1946 and 2007 was compiled, and the political regime type of each conflict initiator was identified. The findings suggest that, in general, authoritarian regimes initiate more interstate conflicts than democracies. Compared to other types of autocracy, military rule does not rank first in the initiation of interstate wars; instead, it is typically preceded by personalist dictatorships. The study distinguishes between military dictatorships and military regimes. A military dictatorship is a form of military rule in which the head of state or president is a career military officer who comes to power through the overthrow of a civilian government-i.e., via a military coup. Its key distinction from a military regime lies in the absence of a collegial governing body. A military regime represents a more institutionalized form of military rule. It has been established that military dictatorships initiate wars and armed interstate conflicts more frequently than military regimes, a difference attributed to the presence of checks and balances in the form of a military government junta acting as a collegial authority. The initiation of international conflict by military authorities coincides with the existence of a territorial dispute between the states involved. The findings of this study significantly contribute to understanding the escalation and potential resolution of international conflicts.</jats:p>