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Democratic Peace

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Paper: Intro. Many different explanations have been brought forth to explain why democracies do not fight one another . Among academics, the most prominent theories can be divided among three schools of thought: liberal institutionalist, realist, and liberal constructivist. Beyond academia, often-simplified interpretations of these theories have guided many Great Powers’ foreign policy decisions. This paper will first seek to outline what most academics agree to be the empirical correlations between democracies and war. This paper will then outline and examine the competing theories behind the Democratic Peace. This paper will argue that although some of the realist critiques are plausible and should not be entirely dismissed, the liberal constructivist theories offer the most accurate explanation of why the Democratic Peace exists. This paper will finish by examining the foreign policy implications of this thesis, with reference to recent and potentially future military engagements undertaken by today’s democratic Great Powers. Despite originally being theorized by name Kant at a time in which there …show more content…

These liberal theories can be further divided into what I will refer to as the liberal institutionalist theories and the liberal constructionist theories. The liberal institutionalist arguments focus on democratic institutions and the checks and balances they provide, while liberal constructionist arguments focus on the cultural norms associated with democratic nations—namely

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