Democracy, Peace, and Security [Hardcover]

Prompted by the commemorations of the onset of the First World War a century ago, this book asks what amounts to the key question for anyone interested in world politics: What makes for a peaceful order? Focusing on the nexus of democracy, order and peace, the volume provides extraordinarily nuanced and very timely answers to this question.Democracy, Peace, and Security is an important contribution to the ongoing debate about the impact democracy has on peace and security. This book is an important intellectual tool for academics, graduate students, and faculty who are following this debate; but also for persons active in politics who are interested in a perspective which goes beyond the daily routine. The book establishes a link between academia, politics, and policies  an eye opener for all studying and doing research in International Relations.This book explores the question of the extent to which Democratic Peace can provide a solution for conflict and constitute a guide to peaceful co-existence and dispute settlement in todays world and whether a concert of powers or security communities pose alternatives. The significance of international organizations and gender equality are also discussed within this context.Democracies are extremely unlikely to wage war against other democracies  this main proposition of the Democratic Peace theory constitutes the starting point for this volume. Chapters authored by experts from different parts of the world explore the concept of Democratic Peace in greater depth in relation to selected issue areas and in comparison to other concepts such as security communities or concerts of powers. The role and significance of international organizations and gender equality, for instance, are discussed and assessed in this context. The objective guiding this exercise is to give an answer to the question as to whether Democratic Peace and the other two concepts  i.e. security communities and concerts of powers  can provide a solutionl#{