POLI 360 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Colin Powell, September 11 Attacks, Al-Qaeda
26 Apr 2019
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Document Summary
If states can learn behaviour, then we can change the world: norms adopted domestically are also reflected in foreign policy - "live and let live" It would be possible to move towards greater global harmony. It needs support of general public opinion, legislature, bureaucracies, interest groups: a democracy cannot go to war so easily, very few justifications for wars in democracies, mobilization for war in democracies is difficult and cumbersome. It also takes a democracy more time to prepare for war, allowing more time to solve the problem by diplomacy. Nondemocracies: nondemocracies, by contrast, can launch a war with little regard for public opinion or due political process. In fact, because elites in a nondemocracy may benefit from war, they might choose it as a strategy. "it is possible that major features of the international system can be socially constructed from the bottom up"
