Ever since the revival of Kant's Perpetual Peace thesis, the linkages between democracy and peace has been a central topic in international relations research, with sustained debate over whether it exists and if it does, why it does. In this stimulating volume, two leading IR scholars place the democratic peace debate within a broader context, including the extent of threats in international relations, degree of satisfaction with the status quo, the diffusion of democracy, and the rise of the trading state. Step by step, Thompson and Rasler examine the democratic peace through a series of puzzles concerning arguments at the dyadic, systemic, and individual state levels. Synthesizing a broad range of knowledge and linking islands of theory, Puzzles of the Democratic Peace provides a distinctive look at the state of the field and paths forward.

'This volume is extremely impressive. Its careful, well-balanced theoretical approach and its systematic empirical testing will quickly make it the gold standard for books on the democratic peace. Each chapter builds on the preceding chapter by testing important components of the new theory, building a mountain of empirical evidence in support of the new approach. Scholars will be engrossed by the sophisticated theoretical comparisons and the new synthesis that the authors advance.' - Jeffrey Pickering, Kansas State University

Autorentext
WILLIAM R. THOMPSON and KAREN RASLER are both Professors of Political Science at Indiana University at Bloomington, USA.

Inhalt
PART I: INTRODUCTION Developing Perspective on Democratic Peace Phenomena and Its Puzzles PART II: CONTEXTS IN WHICH DEMOCRACIES EMERGE: CHICKENS AND/OR EGGS? External Threat, Domestic Power Inequalities, and Disputatious Foreign Policies Putting the Cart Before the Horse? Does Peace Precede Democracy in Questions of Foreign Policy Primacy? PART III: THE RELATIVE STRENGTH OF REGIME TYPE IN COERCIVE CONTEXTS Path Dependencies and Foreign Policy Do Rivalries Trump Regime Type? Do the Gods of War Really Favor Democracies? PART IV: THE SYSTEMATIC CONTEXT IN WHICH DEMOCRACIES COMPETE Have Democratic-Autocratic Rivalries Muddied the Monadic Waters? Long-term Structural Change and Regime Type Democratic Alliance Joining or Changing System Leader Containment Strategies? PART V: CONCLUSION History, Geopolitics and the Selective Transformation of World Politics