The ConflictSpace of Cataclysm: The International System and the Spread of War 1914–1917

Social network analysis is used to show that underlying systemic structure made war more likely to spread in 1914 than earlier in the century. The changing network density of three diffusion processes is seen as crucial—alliances, interstate rivalries, and territorial disputes. The findings show that the density of each of these factors increased in the system in varying degrees from 1900 to the end of 1913. How the three diffusion processes interacted with contiguity to make the local war between Austria–Hungary and Serbia spread to become a world war is explained both theoretically and historically.