Brown, Michael :

Michael Brown is Co-Editor of International Security, and Director of Research, National Security Studies Program, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

Lynn-Jones, Sean M. :

Sean M. Lynn-Jones is a Research Associate at the BCSIA, series editor of BCSIA Studies in International Security, and a Co-Editor of International Security.

Miller, Steven E. :

Steven E. Miller is Director of the International Security Program at BCSIA, and Editor-in-Chief of International Security.

"Extremely useful ... excellent."

--Francis Fukuyama, Foreign Affairs

"The democratic peace thesis is one of the most significant propositions to come out of social science in recent decades. If true, it has crucially important implications for both theory and policy. Debating the Democratic Peace provides a comprehensive collection of the major writings on all sides of this issue."

-- Samuel P. Huntington, Harvard University

MIT Press Web Site, December, 2000

"Extremely useful ... excellent."
-- Francis Fukuyama, Foreign Affairs

"The democratic peace thesis is one of the most significantpropositions to come out of social science in recent decades. If true, it has crucially important implications for both theory and policy .Debating the Democratic Peace provides a comprehensive collection of the major writings on all sides of this issue."
-- Samuel P. Huntington, Harvard University

Are democracies less likely to go to war than other kinds of states? This question is of tremendous importance in both academic and policy-making circles and one that has been debated by political scientists for years. The Clinton administration, in particular, has argued that the United States should endeavor to promote democracy around the world. This timely reader includes some of the most influential articles in the debate that have appeared in the journal International Security during the past two years, adding two seminal pieces published elsewhere to make a more balanced and complete collection, suitable for classroom use.

Part I. The Case for Democratic Peace

Kant, Liberal Legacies, and Foreign Affairs Michael W. Doyle
The Fact of Democratic Peace Bruce Russett
Why Democratic Peace? Bruce Russett
How Liberalism Produces Democratic Peace John M.Owen

Part II. The Case against the Democratic Peace

Kant or Cant: The Myth of the Democratic Peace Christopher Layne
The Insignificance of the Liberal Peace David E. Spiro
Polities and Peace Henry S. Farber and Joanne Gowa
The Subjectivity of the "Democratic" Peace: Changing U.S. Perceptions of Imperial Germany Ido Oren
Democratization and the Danger of War Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder

Part III. Point and Counterpoint

The Democratic Peace - And Yet It Moves Bruce Russett
The Liberal Peace - And Yet It Squirms David E. Spiro
On the Democratic Peace Christopher Layne
Reflections on the Liberal Peace and Its Critics Michael W. Doyle