Developing Perspective on Democratic Peace Phenomena

Abstract

The study of international relations is currently undergoing one of its periodic bouts of greater-than-usual intellectual turmoil. The world out there seems to be changing on us in ways that are not easy to fathom. Stripped of our Cold War anchor and other things once thought to be immutable (such as the U.S.-Soviet Cold War, South African apartheid, the relative absence of foreign terrorism in the United States, and the improbability of a Palestinian state), it is not always clear how we should interpret current events or from what perspective.