Abstract

Revolutions have a tremendous impact on international relations, yet the relationship between the two has not been studied sufficiently. This thesis attempts to shed light on this issue. It explores the weaknesses in the pre-existing literature and recommends a new approach and mechanism on how revolutions cause international tension. Through the study, a revamped definition and categorization of revolution is offered for a better understanding of the revolution. The proposition is that revolutions that affect the balance of threat significantly or have social revolution characteristics, and inflict considerable misery to a country are likely to generate significant tension with other countries and, ultimately, war. Sixty revolutions are examined both quantitatively (by an OLS regression) and qualitatively to test the hypothesis. The regression illustrates that the model has substantial correlation value and the qualitative study of the sixty cases, confirm the quantitative findings more in-depth.