Review: Building Reputation: Why Governments Fight Some Separatists but Not Others

A political science literature review by yours truly:

Walter, Barbara F. 2006. “Building Reputation: Why Governments Fight Some Separatists but Not Others.” American Journal of Political Science 50(2):313–30.

Walter’s focus on the strategic use of established reputation seeks to explain why some governments expressly counter independence and/or territorial autonomy movements within their territory, while others accommodate them. In doing so, the author demonstrates the rationale for a government to go to war to build a deterrent reputation. Employing the framework of territorial disputes, her argument is that states will develop a reputation for toughness based on consideration of expected future events and future challengers to the status quo. In arguing that states are forward looking, she shows that the value of the stakes (territory) and the capabilities of the disputants are taken into account and immediate interests are weighed against perceived future challenges stemming from the initial decision.

By employing a dataset of all self-determination movements initiated between 1956 and 2002, Walters explains government behavior and dominant trends that emerge from the data. Her hypotheses seek to prove the forward thinking of government, in its balance of future consideration and current crises and demands from domestic cohorts – but she also allows as a possibility that the realist notion of prevailing balance of power being the ultimate consideration in responding to challenges.

Walter’s findings support her theory that a state will aggressively counter an initial separatist challenge to deter future attempts from others. She also concludes that this method produces the desired result.