IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jocore/v66y2022i3p413-442.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Liberal Peace?: The Growth of Liberal Norms and the Decline of Interstate Violence

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick Gill-Tiney

Abstract

How have understandings of fundamental norms of international society changed over time? How does this relate to the decline of interstate violence since 1945? Previous explanations have focused on regime type, domestic institutions, economic interdependence, relative power, and nuclear weapons, I argue that a crucial and underexplored part of the puzzle is the change in understanding of sovereignty over the same period. In this article, I propose a novel means of examining change in these norms between 1970 and 2014 by analyzing the content of UN Security Council resolutions. This analysis is then utilized in quantitative analysis of the level of violence dispute participants resorted to in all Militarized Interstate Disputes in the period. I find that as liberal understandings of fundamental norms have increased, that the average level of violence used has decreased. This points to a crucial missing component in the existing literature: that institutions can only constrain when political actors share the right norms.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Gill-Tiney, 2022. "A Liberal Peace?: The Growth of Liberal Norms and the Decline of Interstate Violence," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 66(3), pages 413-442, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:66:y:2022:i:3:p:413-442
    DOI: 10.1177/00220027211035554
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00220027211035554
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00220027211035554?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tannenwald, Nina, 1999. "The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Normative Basis of Nuclear Non-Use," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(3), pages 433-468, July.
    2. Vreeland,James Raymond & Dreher,Axel, 2014. "The Political Economy of the United Nations Security Council," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521740067, November.
    3. Michael J. Hanmer & Kerem Ozan Kalkan, 2013. "Behind the Curve: Clarifying the Best Approach to Calculating Predicted Probabilities and Marginal Effects from Limited Dependent Variable Models," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(1), pages 263-277, January.
    4. Tomz, Michael & Weeks, Jessica L.P. & Yarhi-Milo, Keren, 2020. "Public Opinion and Decisions About Military Force in Democracies," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(1), pages 119-143, January.
    5. Acemoglu,Daron & Robinson,James A., 2009. "Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521671422, January.
    6. Weiss, Jessica Chen, 2013. "Authoritarian Signaling, Mass Audiences, and Nationalist Protest in China," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 67(1), pages 1-35, January.
    7. McDonald,Patrick J., 2009. "The Invisible Hand of Peace," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521761369, January.
    8. McDonald,Patrick J., 2009. "The Invisible Hand of Peace," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521744126, January.
    9. Weeks, Jessica L., 2012. "Strongmen and Straw Men: Authoritarian Regimes and the Initiation of International Conflict," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 106(2), pages 326-347, May.
    10. North,Douglass C. & Wallis,John Joseph & Weingast,Barry R., 2013. "Violence and Social Orders," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107646995, November.
    11. Moravcsik, Andrew, 1997. "Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International Politics," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(4), pages 513-553, October.
    12. Nadelmann, Ethan A., 1990. "Global prohibition regimes: the evolution of norms in international society," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(4), pages 479-526, October.
    13. McDonald, Patrick J., 2015. "Great Powers, Hierarchy, and Endogenous Regimes: Rethinking the Domestic Causes of Peace," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 69(3), pages 557-588, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vennesson Pascal, 2010. "Military Strategy in the Global Village," New Global Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 3(3), pages 1-43, February.
    2. Nick Cowen, 2018. "Robust Against Whom?," Advances in Austrian Economics, in: Austrian Economics: The Next Generation, volume 23, pages 91-111, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    3. Michael Mousseau, 2012. "The Democratic Peace Unraveled: It’s the Economy," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 1207, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    4. Benjamin O Fordham, 2020. "History and quantitative conflict research: A case for limiting the historical scope of our theoretical arguments," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 37(1), pages 3-15, January.
    5. Jonathan N Markowitz & Christopher J Fariss, 2018. "Power, proximity, and democracy," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 55(1), pages 78-93, January.
    6. Cathy Xuanxuan Wu & Scott Wolford, 2018. "Leaders, States, and Reputations," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 62(10), pages 2087-2117, November.
    7. Matthew DiGiuseppe & Patrick E. Shea, 2016. "Borrowed Time: Sovereign Finance, Regime Type, and Leader Survival," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 342-367, November.
    8. Michael Mousseau, 2018. "Grasping the scientific evidence: The contractualist peace supersedes the democratic peace," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 35(2), pages 175-192, March.
    9. Rommel, Tobias & Schaudt, Paul, 2020. "First impressions: How leader changes affect bilateral aid," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    10. Coyne,Christopher J., 2020. "Defense, Peace, and War Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108724036, January.
    11. Snigdha Dewal & Jack A. Goldstone & Michael Volpe, 2013. "Forecasting Stability or Retreat in Emerging Democratic Regimes," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 1(1), pages 32-47.
    12. Stephan Haggard, 2014. "Liberal Pessimism: International Relations Theory and the Emerging Powers," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(1), pages 1-17, January.
    13. Annamária Artner, 2018. "Can Capitalism Be Truly Democratic?," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 50(4), pages 793-809, December.
    14. Erich Weede, 2011. "The Capitalist Peace," Chapters, in: Christopher J. Coyne & Rachel L. Mathers (ed.), The Handbook on the Political Economy of War, chapter 14, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Gerald Schneider & Nils Petter Gleditsch, 2010. "The Capitalist Peace: The Origins and Prospects of a Liberal Idea," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(2), pages 107-114, May.
    16. Adlai Newson & Francesco Trebbi, 2018. "Authoritarian elites," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(4), pages 1088-1117, November.
    17. Braunfels, Elias, 2016. "Further Unbundling Institutions," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 13/2016, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    18. Christopher W. Blair & Jonathan A. Chu & Joshua A. Schwartz, 2022. "The Two Faces of Opposition to Chemical Weapons: Sincere Versus Insincere Norm-Holders," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 66(4-5), pages 677-703, May.
    19. Bjørnskov, Christian & Pfaff, Katharina, 2021. "Differences matter: The effect of coup types on physical integrity rights," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    20. Patricia Justino, 2022. "Revisiting the links between economic inequality and political violence: The role of social mobilization," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-19, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:66:y:2022:i:3:p:413-442. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://pss.la.psu.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.