Jack Snyder
Review Essay
Jul/Aug
2006
Can realism and idealism be reconciled? Christopher Layne's The Peace of Illusions and Colin Dueck's Reluctant Crusaders take on the twin poles of U.S. foreign policy.
Review Essay
Nov/Dec
2005
Mature democracies may not fight each other. But immature democracies, an important new book argues, can be quite bellicose. Unfortunately, Iraq might end up fitting the pattern.
Essay
May/Jun
1995
The idea that democracies never fight wars against each other has become an axiom. While mature, stable democracies are safer, states usually go through a dangerous transition to democracy. Historical evidence from the last 200 years shows that in this phase, countries become more war-prone, not less, and they do fight wars with democratic states. This raises questions about the U.S. policy of promoting peace by promoting democratization. Pushing Russia and China toward democracy may actually bring war in the short term.
