<<“Democratic Peace Theory,” or the idea that Liberal Democratic States don’t go to war with one another and tend to be fraternally cooperative on the world stage.>>
Whatever one thinks of this theoretically, it is an undeniably true and significant fact about the world since 1945. And the fact that the "realists" have no account of how this can be is a pretty big problem for their theory!
I'm reminded of the classical/Austrian-school economists who doggedly insisted through the early to mid 1930s that elevated unemployment was impossible, and that free markets at equilibrium must always restore full employment in the long run. Their theories just had no answer at all for why high unemployment in the real world could last so long. And when your theory tries to hand-wave away things about the real world that are just obviously true and important, it's a shitty theory!
The world is a much better and more prosperous place because Keynesian economics displaced this garbage. I hope the same thing happens to today's foreign-policy "realists."
Another factor that is seriously underappreciated by realists (and many FP scholars more broadly) is the extent to which domestic politics drives international relations. The U.S. fiasco with taking a year to give Ukraine more aid only happened because Republicans controlled the house and are a mix of deranged ideologues who view Putin as an ally and cowards who were afraid Trump would try to primary them.
<<“Democratic Peace Theory,” or the idea that Liberal Democratic States don’t go to war with one another and tend to be fraternally cooperative on the world stage.>>
Whatever one thinks of this theoretically, it is an undeniably true and significant fact about the world since 1945. And the fact that the "realists" have no account of how this can be is a pretty big problem for their theory!
I'm reminded of the classical/Austrian-school economists who doggedly insisted through the early to mid 1930s that elevated unemployment was impossible, and that free markets at equilibrium must always restore full employment in the long run. Their theories just had no answer at all for why high unemployment in the real world could last so long. And when your theory tries to hand-wave away things about the real world that are just obviously true and important, it's a shitty theory!
The world is a much better and more prosperous place because Keynesian economics displaced this garbage. I hope the same thing happens to today's foreign-policy "realists."
Another factor that is seriously underappreciated by realists (and many FP scholars more broadly) is the extent to which domestic politics drives international relations. The U.S. fiasco with taking a year to give Ukraine more aid only happened because Republicans controlled the house and are a mix of deranged ideologues who view Putin as an ally and cowards who were afraid Trump would try to primary them.
Oh yeah no, I mean the whole thing just completely ignores how various interest groups influence State behavior.