Democratic Peace: A Political Biography

Title Page, About the Author, Copyright, Dedication

Democratic Peace: A Political Biography The Democratic Peace Thesis holds that democracies rarely make war on other democracies. Political scientists have advanced numerous theories attempting to identify precisely which elements of democracy promote this mutual peace; many of these academics agreed that Democratic Peace could be the final and ultimate antidote to war. However, as the theories were taken up by political figures, the immediate outcomes were war and the perpetuation of hostilities. In Democratic Peace: A Political Biography, political theorist Piki IshShalom sketches the origins and early development of the Democratic Peace Thesis and reveals that the so-called ivory tower is not—and never has been—isolated from real-world politics. He then focuses on the ways in which various Democratic Peace Theories were used by Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both to shape and to justify U.S. foreign policy, particularly the United States’ stance on the Israeli-Palestinian situation and the war in Iraq. In the conclusion, Ish-Shalom boldly confronts the question of how much responsibility theoreticians must bear for the political uses—and misuses—of their ideas. Piki Ish-Shalom is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Democratic Peace A Political Biography Piki Ish-Shalom The University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2013 All rights reserved This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher. Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-free paper 2016 2015 2014 2013 4 3 2 1 A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ish-Shalom, Piki. Democratic peace : a political biography / Piki Ish-Shalom pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-472-11876-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-472-02915-0 (e-book) 1. Democracy. 2. Peace. I. Title. JC423.I84 2013 303.6'6—dc23 2012047394 This book is dedicated to my parents, Rina and Alex Ish-Shalom, who lovingly and caringly made my own biography possible. ...