Summary and Conclusions: Power, Principles, or Militarist Peace?

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the main arguments and findings from the three-part investigation of the evolution of peace or the absence of war in South America. The analysis demonstrates that this is an anomalous historical development whose fundamental etiology is not apparent. Moreover, the long period of peace proves to be a formidable challenge to the theoretical precepts and explanatory tools of political realism and international liberalism. As established at the beginning of this study, the absence of a major intraregional interstate war since 1935 is an anomaly given the presence of enduring conditions necessary for conflict and war.