Session 24: Liberal membership required to join the "Liberal Peace Club"

The article Kant Liberal Legacies and Foreign Affairs was written by Michael Doyle back in 1983 in which he discuses the idea of democratic peace i.e. wars are not conducted among liberal democracies and they are on cordial terms with each other. On page 213, Doyle explains why this is so. The theory of liberal international assumes that states are allowed to decide against the foreign intervention. "Since morally autonomous citizens hold rights to liberty, the states that democratically represent them have the right to exercise political independence. Mutual respect for these rights then becomes the touchstone of international liberal democracy. When states respect each other's rights, individuals re free to establish private international ties without state interference. Profitable exchanges between merchants and educational exchanges among scholars then create a web of mutual advantages and commitments that bolsters sentiments of public respect" (Doyle 213). According to Doyle, this mutual respect plays a significant role in increasing cooperation between liberal democracies and establishing strong relations among them. All liberal democracies believe in common values and notions. Citizens in such states are made fully aware of the aftermaths of wars and thus are likely to voice against preparations for war. Juraj Draxler has also identified, in his essay Does the democratic peace thesis invalidate the realist view of international politics?, that liberal democracies are willing to participate in international organizations which attempt to resolve worldly conflicts peacefully (Draxler 3).

However there are many scholars who have condemned the implications of Doyle's article, for instance Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder. They have noted that in the short-run, spreading democracy worldwide, in order to bring peace, could prove to be "counter-productive since transforming countries tend to be unstable" (Draxler 4).

The main weakness of democratic peace notion is, according to the report published by Cambridge University, that although it is understandable that liberal democracies are on cordial terms with each other, one must note that every state in the international community cannot claim to be a liberal democracy. The reason why the modern conflict exists and has increased is because of the struggle between liberal states and their illiberal counterparts. Liberal democracies enjoy healthy relations with each other because they are similar, not because they are democratic (Cambridge University 2). The report published by Cambridge University has asserted that the "ideologies that cause liberal democracies to be at peace with each other are the same ideas which inspire idealistic wars with illiberal nations and attract aggression from seemingly non democratic states" (Cambridge University 3). Moreover it has also been noted that the theory of democratic peace has been used as justification for invading Iraq in 2003 as President Bush is believed to have stated that "great faith held in democracies to promote perpetual peace in the Middle East" (Cambridge University 3). Forcing a particular state, which is surrounded by autocratic societies, to democratize has increased the threat of war and not the possibility of securing peace.

Last but not the least, the liberal democracy is increasingly viewed as western ideology. Instead of promoting "enlightened principles to the global economy, the tension between normative values has threatened social cohesion with supranational entities" (Cambridge University 3), for instance the US which never stops intervening in sovereignty of other states and it is also "viewed as a symbol of oppression" (Cambridge University 3).







Links:

For "Can Liberal Democracy guarantee Perpetual Peace?", published by Cambridge University  http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/hr/ppd/files/gdp-teach&learn_SPSessay-2.pdf.

For "Does the democratic peace thesis invalidate the realist view of international politics?" by Juraj Draxler: blog.sme.sk/blog/968/185062/DRAXLER-BA.doc