When is military force an acceptable tool of foreign policy? Why do democracies use force against each other? David R. Mares argues that the key factors influencing political leaders in all types of polities are the costs to their constituencies of using force and whether the leader can survive their displeasure if the costs exceed what they are willing to pay. Violent Peace proposes a conceptual scheme for analyzing militarized conflict and supports this framework with evidence from the history of Latin America. His model has greater explanatory power when applied to this conflict-ridden...

The ideal introduction to U.S.- Chilean relations. Senior scholars Mares and Aravena deftly trace the path of the relationship from early partners, through tense Cold War stand-offs, to the slowly warming relations of the present.

First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

With the end of the Cold War the attention of policymakers, political activists, and academics has focused on the factors which promote democracy and regional peace. From both a theoretical and empirical perspective, the contributors to this volume examine the claim that civilian domination is the only form compatible with democracy and regional peace. By focusing on political values and the institutional rules of politics, the authors not only dispute this claim but clarify the conditions under which a partnership between civilians and the military can help promote both. The authors provide...

An international policy issue awash in myths, social prejudices, and political rhetoric, it's no wonder students find the international drug trade an alluring topic to study. This title explores the reasons why there is so much disagreement among nations about which policies are appropriate to address drug production, distribution, and trade.

This book explores interstate conflict and its dynamics in the context of Latin America's contemporary conflict management experience. The myth of Latin America as a region of peace means that each time the use of force rises to the level of global attention (e.g., Ecuador-Peru 1995 or Colombia-Ecuador 2008) analysts and the press ask, "how could that happen here?" Yet the official uses of military force in interstate relations are significantly more prevalent than most analysts within and outside the region understand, and the region is facing new and potentially destabilizing...

In January 1995, fighting broke out between Ecuadorian and Peruvian military forces in a remote section of the Amazon. It took more than three years and the interplay of multiple actors and factors to achieve a definitive peace agreement, thus ending what had been the region's oldest unresolved border dispute. This conflict and its resolution provide insights about other unresolved and/or disputed land and sea boundaries which involve almost every country in the Western Hemisphere.

Drawing on extensive field research at the time of the dispute and during its aftermath, including...