George Lawson

IR100 - The structure of international society: democratic peace theory (week 5)Lecture slides

 

 

 

 

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Democratic Peace Theory

IR100 Lecture 5 2011-12George Lawson

IR’s GPS?Image Placeholder

Image: Globe surrounded by orbiting satellites.

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Democratic peace theory is SERIOUSImportant to lots of big events, e.g. Iraq, Libya,

Arab SpringSpeaks to broader orientations as students of IRLinks theory and practice

Immanuel Kant

Articles for a Perpetual Peace

Republican constitutions best link individual autonomy with political community

Republican states will form a ‘pacific union’ which settles disputes by law, not war

Universal cosmopolitan existence will spread around the world

So, in democratic states: War is irrationalWar is wrongPacific union rules ok

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Modern DPT‘Democratic states do not go to war with

each other’‘As close to an empirical law as we have in IR

today’

Definitional issuesWhat is a democracy?

Universal suffragePolitical and civil rightsCan democracies have monarchs? Or empires?

What is a war?1,000 battle deadBut: new wars, virtual wars, war on drugs,

covert ops, near misses etc

EvidenceMonadic claim: democratic states are more

peaceful than non-democratic states (little evidence)

Dyadic claim: democracies are peaceful with respect to one another (some evidence)

Triadic claim: democracy + free trade + IOs/international law = perpetual peace (good luck)

CausationDomestic constraints, shared values, trade,

interdependence, and more = democratic zone of peace

But … can we prove it?Wrong end of the telescopeWhy aren’t democracies generally peace

loving?What about capitalism?

Therefore … DPT is a normative claim allied to a correlation of which there is some evidence. But how significant is this finding?

Democratization is dangerous

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Muammar_al-Gaddafi_at_the_AU_summit.jpg

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Lets vote …

The formation of modern international society

The structure of contemporary international society

Balance of power vs. democratic peace theory

Modern international society was primarily formed by:

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25% 25%

50%

0%0%

1. The Treaty of Westphalia (i.e. 1648 and all that)

2. Global modernity (i.e. the 19th century and all that)

3. Neither4. Both5. What a silly question:

international society is an unchanging realm of recurrence and repetition

The structure of contemporary international society is best seen as:

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50%

0%

50%

0%0%

1. A core-periphery order with the West at the centre

2. An anarchical system in which sovereign states prioritize their security

3. An anarchical society in which institutions provide stability and order

4. Decentred globalism

5. Something else ...

Which theory delivers the jammiest jam in the IR doughnut:

1. Balance of power theory

2. Democratic peace theory

3. Neither – IR is a polo mint

4. Sorry, I’m too busy stuffing my face with this delicious doughnut – what was the question again?

Ok – that’s all folks

Remember that the task is not perfection, but ‘clear fuzziness’

And remember to keep in touch: g.lawson@lse.ac.uk