Democratic Alliance Joining or Changing System Leader Containment Strategies?

Abstract

Following the reaffirmation of the utility of top-down interpretations demonstrated in chapter eight, this chapter focuses on one of the more neglected explanatory dimensions of the democratic peace—the linkages between it and the variable presence or absence of systemic leadership. Several arguments are pursued. Following arguments put forward by Quincy Wright (1942/65), George Modelski (Modelski and Gardner, 1991, 2002) and others, systemic leadership is advanced as one of the major sources of democratic peace. An economically vibrant, democratic, naval power with insularity, or global system leader, is a necessary factor in expanding the size of the democratic state pool and encouraging the relative absence of intense conflict within that community. While Wright made this argument over a half century ago, it dovetails nicely with more contemporary, leadership long cycle arguments.