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The article examines the relationship between domestic public opinion and international relations between two or more independent states from the perspective of international relations scholars and Americanists. It takes a closer look at the impact of decisions made by American presidents on their approval ratings. It offers a hypothesis that contends that the outcomes of international disputes impact public opinion in predictable ways beyond those best articulated in the simple rallying effect thesis.

This paper tests some of the most prominent theories of dispute onset on a newly created data set of Native American, inter-nation conflict in eastern North America between 1610 and 1765. After the relevance of this alternate international system is discussed, an extended discussion of the data source, collection techniques, and potential problems is offered. Next, a brief literature review covers the highlights of each of the general theories (balance of power, power transition [PT], democratic peace, and cultural determinants of war) to be tested, accompanied with specific concept operationalizations employed in the construction of a Native American nations data set. Finally, utilizing logistic regression, each of these theories is tested both individually and jointly in a full model with important control variables for direct and European alliances. The findings offer varying degrees of support for the balance of power, power transition and democratic peace (with a few new wrinkles) arguments, with no support found for cultural determinants of war. Based on the strength and consistency of these findings, further expansion of the data set and additional research on conflicts between Native American nations appears warranted. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper builds on the franchise party model sketched by Carty (2004) by incorporating relevant literature from the field of business management, constructing explicit hypotheses, and empirically testing these hypotheses via logistic regression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]