Provides a critique and an extention of the "democratic peace" theory by focusing on the regional level and by offering alternative explanations for the maintenance of democratic and non-democratic "zones of peace."

International relations scholars have traditionally focused on explaining war rather than peace, resulting in the concept of peace being understudied and underemphasized. This book in contrast explains the maintenance of extensive periods of international peace in two regions of the Third World: South America and West Africa. The term "zones of peace" has been used in reference to the Cold War (1945–1989) and to separate peace among the democracies developed progressively throughout the last two hundred years. In this book, however, Kacowicz moves beyond a European focus to consider the theoretical and historical significance of the term in the context of the Third World. He argues that there have been periods of "long peace," so that zones of peace, characterized by the absence of interstate war, have developed in South America since the late 1880s and among the West African countries since their independence in the early 1960s. Kacowicz explores how regional peace is maintained in South America and West Africa through the distilling of alternative explanations, including Realism, Liberalism, and satisfaction with the territorial status quo. He also examines how peace can be maintained among states that usually do not sustain Western democratic regimes by offering a critique (and improvement) upon the "democratic peace" theory. Peace can indeed be maintained, he asserts, among nondemocratic states, although there is a direct relationship between the quality of the regional peace and the type of political regimes sustained by the countries in any given region.

This volume is a collection of the best essays of Professor Benjamin Miller on the subjects of international and regional security. The book analyses the interrelationships between international politics and regional and national security, with a special focus on the sources of international conflict and collaboration and the causes of war and peace. More specifically, it explains the sources of intended and unintended great-power conflict and collaboration. The book also accounts for the sources of regional war and peace by developing the concept of the state-to-nation balance. Thus the volume is able to explain the variations in the outcomes of great power interventions and the differences in the level and type of war and peace in different eras and various parts of the world. For example, the book’s model can account for recent outcomes such as the effects of the 2003 American intervention in Iraq, the post-2011 Arab Spring and the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine. The book also provides a model for explaining the changes in American grand strategy with a special focus on accounting for the causes of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Finally, the book addresses the debate on the future of war and peace in the 21st century. This book will be essential reading for students of international security, regional security, Middle Eastern politics, foreign policy and IR.

A collection of leading international scholars examine the concept of regions from a range of perspectives and assess leading contemporary examples.

This edited volume examines how the multiple manifestations of social violence in Brazil impacts the building of a peaceful society. The chapters reflect on the role of state, organized crime and civil society. They provide a unique analysis of how the Brazilian state deals with criminal violence, but also finds challenges to comply with Sustainable Development Goal 16, to interdict police violence, and to provide an efficient gun policy. The book shows the agency of civil society in a violent society, in which NGOs and communities engage in key peace formation action, including advocacy for human rights and promoting arts. The overall aim of this book is to advance the research agenda regarding the intersections between peace, public security, and violence, under the lens of peace studies. In Brazil, the challenges to peace differ markedly from areas in regular conflict.

Is the phenomenon of state failure better understood through a focus on the regional context? To what extent may studies of regional security benefit from a focus on the capacities and vulnerabilities of the states involved? This title addresses these questions.