This volume, a collection of thir-teen papers, presents a new ap-proach to the study of interna-tional crisis behavior of individual states. The opening essay, by the editor, sets out the terms of refer-ence in the form of a model, re-search question, and three tables defining the attributes of the crisis actor, the dimensions of the crisis, and the characteristics of the crisis decisional unit. The following nine papers are in-depth studies of individual actor-crises which occurred between the years 1939 and 1976. These cases represent small, medium, and large states with different economic and mili-tary capabilities and span the en-tire globe-Europe, North and Central America, South and Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Preliminary comparative findings for the nine "vertical" studies are then summarized.

Initial findings on "horizontal" research, offering systematic comparisons on patterns of be-havior in Middle East crisis, com-prise the final paper in the group of empirical studies. The volume concludes with two papers-one on the quality of decision making, and the other a review of the literature on crisis anticipation, deci-sion making, and management.The papers in this volume orig-inally appeared in the Jerusalem Journal of International Relations.