Liberalism, cont.

caution, respesct, mutual interest: three reasons democracies don't go to war with each other audience costs: democracies don't go to war with each other because the threats that democracies make are more credible since democratic leaders face voting public. The cost is, if you make a threat and back down, you are more likely to suffer than an autocratic leader Do democracies go to war less with OT !" countries# $o. %&'(ra)* %&'+fghanistan* %&',ietnam Liberal states, in seeking to spread democracy and liberal values, may go to war for those reasons what democracies did go to war with each other# -akistan . (ndia, /0012#3. 4an argue that this was a secret ploy by the military that later overthrew the prime minister in -akistan neorealist response for why democracies don't go to war with each other: few democracies before ww5, so this is a specific historical time period. since ww5, democracies have shared similar interests with each other and no conflicts that might lead to war have yet occurred. once again, about shared interests another response: %& dominance. 4ountries that have been democracies have been %& allies historically, and the %& has used its influence to prevent war between two allies territorial disputes: borders drawn without paying attention to important factors countries that don't have territorial disputes are more likely to be democracies since there' s no threat of territorial wars among neighbors. the reason for no war is because of territorial disputes. Those places that don't have such disputes tend to e6perience no war. Therefore, territorial disputes, and not democracies, are what prevents war

what about near misses# fashoda crisis: /101 between france and britain due to conflicts about colony in what is now sudan. final decision to back down 2by france3, was about power and relative capabilities

4ommercial* !conomic (nterdepenence 4ountries that engage in much common with each other are unlikely to go to war

7hat's interdependence# mutual, but necessarily e)ual dependence, such as 8e6ico and the %&. Decisions made in one country affect the other, to greater or lesser degrees economic interdependence leads to peace, usually, since war gets costly as a result of economic trading 4hina and the %& are two e6amples, and there is an immense cost to war among both sides 4hina holds all our debt, so maybe it can use %& debt as a bargaining tool. Or can it# to the realist: survival is more important than material welfare. if core national security interests are in play, none of that economic interdependence matters.