Democratic Wars Looking at the Dark Side of Democratic Peace

by Geis, Anna; Brock, Lothar; Müller, Harald

• ISBN13: 9781403995001
• ISBN10: 1403995001
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-05-14
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Much political capital has been made from the assertion that democratic states are more peaceful and stable than their undemocratic counterparts, yet since the end of the Cold War, history has been shaped by the wars of democracies. Some of these wars have been an interventionist response to ongoing violence. Yet even then, it remains to be explained why democracies should opt for the use of force in dealing with violence. Moreover, other wars have been unambiguously initiated by democracies. In general, democracies have played a crucial role in rehabilitating war as a means of politics. Yet, while democracies seem to agree on the imperative for reorienting their military capabilities from territorial defence to global military governance, they disagree on the scope and institutional prerequisites for the use of force. The book addresses both of these, as well as the shift in the respective policies of democracies, and the strong variance within these policies. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	vii
List of Tables	viii
Acknowledgements	ix
Notes on the Contributors	x
Part I Democracies and War: Theoretical Challenge and Empirical Findings
1 Introduction: the Theoretical Challenge of Democratic Wars	3	(10)
Lothar Brock, Anna Geis and Harald Müller
2 Democratic Wars and Military Interventions, 1946-2002: the Monadic Level Reconsidered	13	(28)
Sven Chojnacki
Part II Democratic Wars as a Challenge to International Relations Theory
3 Democratic Peace: Many Data, Little Explanation?	41	(33)
Harald Müller and Jonas Wolff
4 Democratic Peace — Democratic War: Three Reasons Why Democracies Are War-prone	74	(16)
Christopher Daase
5 Triangulating War: the Use of Force by Democracies as a Variant of Democratic Peace	90	(33)
Lothar Brock
Part III Democracy, Peace and War: Perspectives from Political and Sociological Theory
6 On Democratic War Theory	123	(19)
Nicholas Rengger
7 Spotting the 'Enemy'? Democracies and the Challenge of the 'Other'	142	(28)
Anna Geis
8 Sameness and Distinction: Understanding Democratic Peace in a Bourdieusian Perspective	170	(25)
Catherine Göze
Part IV Conclusions
9 The Case for a New Research Agenda: Explaining Democratic Wars	195	(20)
Lothar Brock, Anna Geis and Harald Müller
References	215	(25)
Index	240