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Democracies do not fight wars against each other
It is stunning! Democracies really don’t fight wars against each other. Sure, you find some examples where countries are labeled “democracies” and get engaged in war. Still, we speak of fully-fledged democracies, “Western-style,” such as Canada, France, or Australia. And here, indeed, you don’t find examples. Why is that? Are democratic countries more peaceful in general? Well, this idea is another subbranch of what is called the Democratic Peace Theory. I will focus only on why they do not fight wars against each other.
Spotting War from the Ivory Tower
The interwar period, 21 years between World War I’s conclusion in 1918 and World War II’s onset in 1939, played a foundational role in shaping International Relations (IR) as an academic discipline. As dramatic geopolitical shifts shook the world, scholars forged pathways to understanding the complexities of international politics by deduction and induction. This brought about seminal works of some iconic authors – and it is worth re-reading them today.
To arm or not to arm, that`s the question here
You don’t want to face an enemy without a weapon, right? If you can’t run from aggression, at least you want to defend yourself. If the guy has a knife, you better have a gun. If he got rockets, you better have nukes. While the individual’s strive for security is comprehensible, the interactive impact is that of an arms race that reduces security for both parties, at least if intentions are not generally aggressive. In international relations theories, the discussion about arms races mirrors general assumptions about how states interact. Unfortunately, both strategies, matching an enemy by armament and delaying armament to prevent a war, may lead to what it intends to avoid: a war.
Poland voted for Europe
The votes are cast. The electoral victory of the Polish opposition platform under Donald Tusk and associates against the incumbent, right-wing populist PiS party led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski is good news. Still, the fact that it does need a united front of democratic parties to secure a majority shows us that something is wrong.
US Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period
President Woodrow Wilson was somewhat of an outlier at that juncture in history. As he guided the U.S. into World War I, he faced significant skepticism from the political elite. For many years, the U.S. had successfully adhered to the Monroe Doctrine, essentially telling Europeans to remain distant from the Americas, but America would stay home, too. Through gradual expansion, reaching as far as the Pacific, the nation evolved into the world’s powerhouse — a development that went largely unnoticed as European powers were preoccupied with themselves. Yet, unexpectedly, American troops surfaced in the Flemish trenches, assuming a pivotal role.
The Paris Peace Conference 1919
Vision meets reality. At the termination of the catastrophic First World War in 1918, the victorious powers convened in Paris to find a pathway towards peace and stability. The Paris Peace Conference aimed to foster a durable peace by holding the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey) responsible for the war and establishing a new international order to prevent another catastrophic conflict. It was a theatre dominated by prominent characters, a meeting place of the world community, and the arena for diplomatic struggles. The results of the Paris Peace Conference were suboptimal. Ideals were confronted with the reality on the ground, and the results bore the seed of failure.