How Democracies Use Intervention: A Neglected Dimension in Studies of the Democratic Peace

Confidence has grown in the finding that democracies do not wage war against one another. Two decades of empirical investigation that support this proposition, in conjunction with the recent expansion of the democratic community, have understandably inspired hope in the 'democratic peace' envisioned by Immanuel Kant and Woodrow Wilson. This article collates three streams of previously unexamined evidence that speak to the promise of this hope. Looking cross-nationally at the incidence of overt military intervention and employing two definitions of democracy, the research explores how democratic states have used this instrument of coercive diplomacy in the 1974-91 period. The study concludes with a discussion about the role that intervention might play in the preservation of peace in the post-Cold War era.