One of the most famous crises that was based on misinterpretation and a zero-sum game was the 1960's Cuban Missile Crisis when misperceptions or fake induced information could have led from a crisis to a conflict and a war. Conflict in the international arena is often lead by perceptions and power politics games that often are not based on realistic evidence. Conflict is nonetheless a measurable phenomena as many conflicts are also based on other issues than misperceptions, power needs or behavioral changes in a country's leadership. These are different economic interests over material goods, like oil or gas, positional goods like political influence or territorial.

More and more, international relations theorists and analyzers have looked within countries and systems to understand the international arena. The internal struggles for power, equilibrium and social welfare are as important in the development of world politics as the aforementioned types of causes. From struggles for independence within a country or a region to strikes...

Mass mobilization has been one of the most important political tools in both internal and external political fights for power and control by various individuals or groups of individuals. Mobilization of a large group of people under the same goal, be it real or not, can produce revolutions and government change in countries that appeared solid in their foreign policy. This type of internal interventionism from exterior forces is becoming a common tool in international politics with a higher value than war in its classical meaning, reducing costs. Obviously, any mass mobilization, be it internally or externally driven, produces a high level of uncertainty for the country and for the interested parties.
Bibliography

Jacoby, T. (2008) Understanding Conflict and Violence. New York: Routledge

Waltz, K. (2001) Man, the State, and the War. New York: Columbia University Press