1996/08/01 by Charles W. Kegley, Margaret G. Hermann · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #International Relations and Foreign Policy #Global Peace and Security Dynamics #Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics #Democracy #Intervention (counseling) #Diplomacy #Political science #Proposition #Political economy #Terrorism #Development economics #Sociology #Law #Psychology #Politics #Economics #Epistemology
paper · doi:10.1177/0022343396033003005
openalex publication_date 1996/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
Abstract Confidence has grown in the finding that democracies do not wage war against one another. Two decades of empirical investigation that support this proposition, in conjunction with the recent expansion of the democratic community, have understandably inspired hope in the `democratic peace' envisioned by Immanuel Kant and Woodrow Wilson. This article collates three streams of previously unexamined evidence that speak to the promise of this hope. Looking cross-nationally at the incidence of overt military intervention and employing two definitions of democracy, the research explores how democratic states have used this instrument of coercive diplomacy in the 1974-91 period. The study concludes with a discussion about the role that intervention might play in the preservation of peace in the post-Cold War era.