Autocratic Leaders, Combat Experience, and Interstate Conflict: Evidence From Iraq

Scholarship concurs that autocratic and military regimes are highly likely to initiate and escalate militarized interstate disputes. While combat experience can moderate the war-prone tendencies of some leaders, most agree that this does not occur in autocratic regimes. This article presents evidence that under at least some conditions, the experience of military combat can make leaders of autocratic and military regimes less likely to initiate militarized disputes. The empirical analysis supports these claims through examining three leaders of the same state—Iraq—who varied in their military and combat experience but faced the same two adversaries regarding the same territorial disputes.