...This chapter provides an assessment of encirclement theory in the Italian Wars (1521–1559). It outlines how the encirclement of France by Austria and Spain emerged and triggered a double security dilemma that revolved around the French attempts to create a buffer zone in northern Italy...

...This chapter provides an overview of the historiographical debate on the Thirty Years' War (1635–1648). It explores how the Spanish encirclement of France triggered a double security dilemma that led to the formation of a rival-based network of alliances and to the adoption of increasingly...

... of the outbreak of World War I. It predicts that China will face encirclement by two great powers, Russia and India, and that its attempts to prevent them from acquiring the operational capabilities to launch a simultaneous attack will trigger a double security dilemma and create the conditions for escalation...

... at the origins of major wars through the unfolding of three steps: double security dilemma, war initiation, and war contagion. It mentions the rival-based system of alliances that entwines the survival of all the members of each bloc and ties the separate dyadic antagonisms of immediate rivals in one unified...