120 International Relations Theory of War
superpowers that constituted the system. During it, 23 wars were fought
between countries around the world.
Table 4.16 shows the territorial outcomes of the wars of the polar powers
in the bipolar system that prevailed around the world in 1946–1991.
TERRITORIAL OUTCOMES IN UNIPOLAR SYSTEMS
Territorial Outcomes in the Unipolar System, 1992–2016In the unipolar system of 1992–2016, two wars were fought between
countries around the world in which the only polar power constituting the
system—the United States as the sole hyperpower—was involved.
Table 4.17 shows the territorial outcomes of the wars in which the
only hyperpower constituting the unipolar system of 1992–2016 was
involved.
TERRITORIAL OUTCOMES OF WARS OF POLAR
POWERS—QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENT
The qualitative assessment conducted in the current subchapter attempts
to prove causality between the study assumption concerning the various
territorial outcomes of wars of polar powers in the three international
system models and the empiric outcomes in those systems: bipolar sys-
tems as systems that encourage the preservation of the territorial sta-
tus quo preceding the war at the end of wars of polar powers; unipolar
systems as systems that encourage territorial expansion of polar powers
at the end of wars of the sole polar power; multipolar systems as sys-
tems that encourage nonexpansion (territorial contraction or status quo)
at the end of central wars or as systems that allow for territorial expan-
sion at the end of major or minor wars. The qualitative assessment is
conducted by assessing a limited number of important wars in which
the polar powers constituting the six instances of the three possible inter-
national system models in the period examined in the study, 1816–2016,
participated.
I chose to examine the territorial outcomes of the wars involving polar
powers using a qualitative assessment of five wars out of the three pos-
sible system models. The purpose of this procedure is to prove one of the
arguments of the study that different international systems encourage dif-
ferent territorial outcomes at the end of the wars involving polar powers.
This assessment was done based on the difference method and involved
assessment of wars in which polar powers out of the three possible polar-
ity methods fought against a small country, Afghanistan: the First Anglo-
Afghan War (1838–1842), in the bipolar system of 1816–1848; the Second