| ID | 095497 |
| Title Proper | Contrasting explanations for peace |
| Other Title Information | realism vs. liberalism in Europe and the Middle East |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Miller, Benjamin |
| Publication | 2010. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | This article focuses on a fourfold distinction among international relations approaches to security and peace (offensive realism, defensive realism, defensive liberalism and offensive liberalism), which is applied to understand differing regional dynamics of conflict resolution, particularly in two key regions: Europe and the Middle East. The shift from realist to liberal assumptions, it is argued here, is the foundation for conflict resolution. The combined effect of the realist mechanisms produced 'cold peace' in Europe, while the liberal strategies warmed the peace considerably, eventually producing a 'high-level warm peace'. More specifically, it was overlooked offensive liberal mechanisms which made an especially major contribution to the emergence of warm peace on the continent through the successful imposition of democratization on the key state for European security, Germany. Defensive liberal strategies then played a very useful supportive role in warming the regional peace. In the Middle East, in contrast, some of the conditions for the application of the realist approaches emerged after the 1973 war, and even then only in the Israeli-Egyptian context, and somewhat more broadly after the end of the Cold War and the 1991 Gulf War. But the conditions for liberal strategies are still missing even though a defensive liberal strategy has been tried in the l990s and an offensive liberal strategy was applied since 2003. Thus, only a cold peace could emerge, and even that only partially due to the relative weakness of the realist mechanisms in the Middle East in comparison to the Western European case during the Cold War. |
| `In' analytical Note | Contemporary Security Policy Vol. 31, No. 1; Apr 2010: p.134 - 164 |
| Journal Source | Contemporary Security Policy Vol. 31, No. 1; Apr 2010: p.134 - 164 |
| Key Words | Peace ; Realism ; Liberalism ; Europe ; Middle East ; European Security ; Germany ; Cold War ; Gulf War - 1991 |