Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Council on Foreign Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Foreign
Affairs.
http://www.jstor.org
Review Essay
Iraq
and
the Democratic
Peace
AND
JACK
SNYDER.
livesto studyinginternationalrelations.
Seldom if ever has the hostility between
academics and the U.S. president been
a former president of
theAmericanPoliticalScienceAssociation,
Republicansfareworse thanDemocrats:
internationalrelations,"namely, that
democracies do not fight one another.
The theory,which originated in the
the sentiment.
According to the academics,Bush's
democraciesextremelydifficult,much
supportfordemocratizationin former
Easternchinashop.Unfortunately,such
likely to startwars-a
March 2003.
Why has a president who set his
defining policy around one of political
science's crown jewels come in for somuch
venom from the same academics who
endorse the idea?After all, a host of peer
reviewedjournalarticleshave implicitly
supported the president's claim that a
democratic Iraqwould not threaten the
United States or Israel, develop weapons
IG N
A F FA
IR S
bull in theMiddle
November/December
2005
[123
JohnM
Owen IV
forextraordinarily
belligerentpolicies.
mocratizingstates-those in transition
from authoritarianism to democracy
do, and are even more prone towar than
authoritarian regimes. Now, in Electing
toFight, the authors have refined their
argument. As they outline in the book,
not only are "incomplete democratizing"
states-those
that develop democratic
use nationalismandxenophobicrhetoric
to buttress their domestic power. In such
cases, however, they are usually restrained
by institutionalized
mechanismsof account
ability.Knowing that if they lead the
country into amilitary defeat or quagmire
theymay be punished at the next election,
politicians in such states are less likely to
advocate a riskywar. In democratizing
states, by contrast, politicians know that
they are insulated from the impact of bad
policies: if awar goes badly, for example,
they can declare a state of emergency,
suspend elections, censor the press, and
so on. Politicians in such states also tend
to fear theirmilitaries, which often crave
foreign enemies andwill overthrow civil
ian governments that do not share their
goals. Combined, these factors can
make the temptation to attack another
state irresistible.
Mansfield
mechanismsforaccountability
(institutions quantitative and case-study support for
their theory. Using rigorous statistical
such as an independent judiciary, civilian
control of themilitary, and protections for methods, the authors show that since
opposition parties and the press), politicians 1815,democratizing states have indeed
been more prone to startwars than either
have incentives to pursue policies that
[124]
FOREIGN
AFFAIRS-
Volume84No.6
democraciesor authoritarianregimes.
Categorizing transitionsaccordingto
whether theyended in fulldemocracies
Council on
Foreign Relations
inGermany in 1871-1918
or Pakistan
throughoutitshistory), theauthorsfind
that in the early years of democratic tran
THE
INTERNSHIP
PROGRAM
sitions,partialdemocracies-especially
those thatget their institutionsin the
The Council on ForeignRelations is seeking
wrong order- are indeedsignificantly
talented individuals
who areconsideringa
careerin internationalrelations.
more likelyto initiatewars.Mansfield
andSnyderthenprovideseveralsuccinct
Interns are recruitedyear-round on a
storiesof democratizingstatesthatdid
semester basis towork in both theNew
in fact go towar, such as the France of
to thepresent.Inmost of thesecases,the
authorsfindwhat theyexpect:in these
democratizingstates,domesticpolitical
was intense.Politicians,
competition
vying
forpower,appeaseddomestichard-liners
by resortingtonationalisticappealsthat
vilifiedforeigners,and thesepoliciesoften
led towars thatwere not in the countries'
strategic interests.
would have
Although theirargument
been strengthenedby a fewcomparative
studiesof democratizingstatesavoiding To apply for an internship,please send a
war and of full democracies and authori
tarianstates startingwars,Mansfield
and Snyder are persuasive. In part this is
becausetheycarefullycircumscribetheir
claims.They acknowledgethatsomecases
are"falsepositives,"that is,wars started
by states that have wrongly been classified
as democratizing, such as the Iran-Iraq
War, started by Iraq in 1980. They also
resumeandcoverletterindudingthe semester,
days, and times available towork to the
InternshipCoordinator in theHuman Re
sourcesOffice at the address listedbelow.
Please refer to theCouncil'sWeb site for
specificopportunities.The Council is an
equal opportunity employer.
Council on ForeignRelations
Human ResourcesOffice
58East 68thStreet
New York, NY 10021
Tel: (212)434-9400
[125]
Others
becomingmature democracies.
might arguethatdemocratizingstates
Owen IV
must strivetohelp democratizingstates
implementreformsin thecorrectorder.In
becausetheirinternalinstabilitytempts
precedethebuildingof institutionsthatwill
check thebalefulincentivesforpoliticians
JohnM
well-intentionedorgan
unsparingtoward
izationsthathavepressuredauthoritarian
nationalconflict?The quantitativedata
FOREIGN
AFFAIRS*
Volume84No.6
Iraqand theDemocraticPeace
prospectof a Shiite-dominated state
aligning itself with Iran, Syria, and
Lebanon's Hezbollah. What if, follow
ing the departure of U.S. troops, Iraq
holds together but as an incomplete
democratizer, with broad suffrage but
anemic state institutions? Such an Iraq
might well treat its own citizens better
than the Baathist regime did. Its treat
istration.
But thoseodds are lengthened
be just as bad.
Although Saddam was an unusually
bellicose and reckless tyrant, attacking
Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990 and
engaging in foolish brinkmanship with
the United States, asMansfield and
Snyder imply, a democratic Iraq may
be no less bellicose and reckless. In the
differenceactuallyto do so.O
dangerousneighborhood.
Already,Iraqi
Shiite parties have been critical of Sunni
dominatedJordan;IraqiSunni parties,
of Shiite-dominated
2005
[127]