In what ways do proponents of the democratic peace theory believe that democracy is related to war and peace? Is democracy a sufficient condition for the emergence of international peace?
The basic principle of the democratic peace theory proclaims that democracies won’t be in conflict or war with each other. Proponents of this theory believe that the peace in the world is protected by the history of the democratic countries. It means that countries with the strong democracies extend their peaceful principles to the international relationship and therefore there cannot be any war and all the conflicts have peaceful solution. Secondly, special institutions or organizations exist in such countries and they prohibit the war. For example, the Canada’s defense minister proclaimed in 1996, that he is “a peacekeeper, not a warrior” (Hillen 34). It means that when there is no danger from other country of alliance democratic countries only maintain peace and do not perform aggressive military actions. In this case Canadian minister stated that the role of his particular ministry to take care of it and to follow peaceful directions. Thirdly, it is proved that democratic countries have developed trade relationships. They are interdependent on each other as therefore war is economically unprofitable. According to Goldstone, trade creates vested interests in peace (3). To sum up, as long as countries expect that the war will cause a great damage, it is preferable for them to stay in peace (Jervis 694).
Unfortunately, democratic regime is not enough for a country to keep peaceful relationship with other countries. For example, it is clear that the World War II was started in response to antidemocratic actions of Nazis of Germany. France and Britain acted in order to protect the peace. On the other hand, the example of Spanish-American war in 1898 can be considered as the war between two democracies. So, actually everything depends on how the democracy is defined by every country. In case there is a clear and approved by every country definition of democracy peaceful solution of every conflict is of course possible.
Works Cited
Goldstone, P. R. “Pax Mercatoria: Does Economic Interdependence Bring Peace?” Audit of the Conventional Wisdom, MIT Center for International Studies, August 2007. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. http://web.mit.edu/cis/pdf/Audit_08_07_Goldstone.pdf.
Jervis, Robert. “War and Misperception.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History, , The Origins and Prevention of Major Wars Vol. 18, No.4 (1988): 675‐700. Web. 11 Dec. 2011.http://public.gettysburg.edu/~dborock/courses/Fall/p303/jervis%20war%20and%20misperception.pdf.
Hillen, John. “Superpowers don’t do windows,” Orbis, 1997. Web. 11 Dec. 2011.
http://www.fpri.org/americavulnerable/03.SuperpowersDontDoWindows.Hillen.pdf.
