Conventional wisdom in international relations maintains that democracies are only peaceful when encountering other democracies. Using a variety of social scientific methods of investigation ranging from statistical studies and laboratory experiments to case studies and computer simulations, Rousseau challenges this conventional wisdom by demonstrating that democracies are less likely to initiate violence at early stages of a dispute. Using multiple methods allows Rousseau to demonstrate that institutional constraints, rather than peaceful norms of conflict resolution, are responsible for...

This is the first book to provide an integrated perspective on the many-sided interrelationships between general systemology, translational systems science, and the wider field of systemology. It offers the reader insight into recent advances in the development of general systems theory, the general systems worldview, and general systems transdisciplinarity. General systemology is a transdiscipline that enables scientific discovery, insightful theory building, and practical innovation in all the disciplines that study, design, or employ complex systems. This book outlines the current state of...