What does the concept of Democratic Peace Theory (DPT) stand for? Explain the concept and then address two additional questions. First, what does DPT tell us about different theories of international relations (realism, liberalism, constructivism)? Second, what are some of the implications of DPT for US foreign policy debates?
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The Democratic Peace Theory states that countries will democracies rarely or even never go to war with one another.
-Realism: Realism prioritizes national interest and security over ideology, moral concerns, and social change. Realist theory is often associated with the idea of power politics, which means that a sovereign state will protect its own interests over the interests of everyone else. This plays into DPT because it is not in the interest of a democratic nation to start conflict with a country who has its same (democratic) interests.
-Liberalism: Liberalist theory takes into account that all countries have different preferences, unlike realist theory that assumes all countries should have the same preferences. Liberalist theorists are more likely to believe that countries with different types of governments can work together in some way because they can have mutual trade benefits with each other, which leads to peace. The DPT states that these different types of government would still be more likely to go to war with one another simply because of ideological differences not because it isn’t possible for them to work together.
-Constructivism: Constructivist theory claims that significant aspects of international relations are contingent on historical and social factors rather than inevitable consequences of other characteristics of world politics. For example: Constructivist theorists would argue that the central powers and allied power were in conflict during WWI because of historical conflicts, not because the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. Theorists would argue that conflict eventually was inevitable. This relates to the DPT because powers on both sides had different types of governments, which led to conflict.
Democratic Peace Theory is relevant to US foreign policy debates in the sense that the US tries to spread democracy to areas where what the US views as “inferior” are in place. The US does not pursue conflict with other democratic states.
^ Lesley Shinbaum (I just changed my username to my actual name.)
Democratic Peace Theory stipulates that two democratic states will not fight eachother.
In terms of IR theories, the DTP is a liberalist theory, and debunks realist theories while simultaneous solidifying constructivist ones.
To answer the second part of the question. The implications of the DPT to US foreign policies is the idea that the United States should protect democracies tghroughout the world, because with democracy comes peace. It may also feel the need to spread democracy to non-democratic societies such as the ones in the Middle East,in hope that it will ensure a peaceful world community.
DPT maintains that statistically speaking the likely-hood of two democratic nations fighting each other is very low, but democratic nations can still fight non-democratic nations. There are three conditions for maintaing that democratic peace: republics must have a constitution (people have a say in state’s actions), international law (relations between states), and cosmopolitan law (laws common to all states). This theory refutes realism which only provides for war, not the presence of peace. A foreign policy recommendation based on DPT would advise the US to democratize rogue states. A problem with that recommendation is that the highest likely-hood for civil violence occurs when a state is transforming from a a regime to a democracy. Case study: Iraq.