PSC 2440 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Philosophical Realism
26 Mar 2020
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Important to make distinction between political liberalism and philosophical realism. Philosophical liberalism combined with neorealist theories explain the likelihood of conflict. Power ration: capability of the stronger state divided by the capability of the weaker state (military, economic, geographic) No, cultural differences don"t seem to cause increases in conflict. Democracies rarely fight other democracies, fight autocracies more often. Increased trade between countries diminish probability of conflict. When you democratize a state, the less likely they are to engage in conflict. Mutual involvement with critical mass of democracies. Hold governments accountable, prone to compromise and conciliation. Provides a stake in peace, promotes empathy, understanding, and a common narrative. Mediate conflicts, isolate norms-violators, socialize states into common norms, iteration regularize contact. What about world war one and democracies? (france, england) Vietnam, american involvement with gulf of tonkin resolution. The us, poland, britain, iraq, etc. (this point goes. 91 gulf war, 2003 iraq war with the compromise point above)
