Liberal democratic peace

Abstract

It is difficult to mount and sustain arguments against liberalism, democracy or peace, either as individual concepts or as a triumvirate. Each has distinguished histories and merits, and is associated with noble causes, groups and individuals. Yet, this chapter contends that peculiar types of liberalism, democracy and peace have been awarded primacy by leading states, international organisations and IFIs in their peace-support interventions. The near hegemony achieved by this version of peace has had a profound impact on the management of contemporary violent ethnonational conflict in standardising the core elements of peace initiatives and accords and reducing the space available for alternative (non-western) approaches to peacemaking. Fundamentally, the liberal democratic peace model often delivers a deeply flawed peace that is deficient in the quality of the peace, democracy and liberty that it offers to the inhabitants of societies emerging from civil war.