The North American democratic peace : absence of war and security institution-building in Canada-US relations, 1867-1958 / Stéphane Roussel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roussel, Stéphane, 1964-

Contributor:

Queen's University (Kingston, Ont.). Centre for International Relations.

Queen's University (Kingston, Ont.). School of Policy Studies.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Canada--Foreign relations--United States.

Canada.

International relations.

United States.

United States--Foreign relations--Canada.

United States--Foreign relations--1865-.

Peace.

Physical Description:

xiii, 256 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Montreal : Published for the School of Policy Studies and the Centre for International Relations, Queen's University, by McGill-Queen's University Press, [2004]

Summary:

The Canadian-American relationship constitutes one of the world's longest-standing "security communities." Security communities are interstate groupings characterized by dependable expectations of peaceful change, meaning that members neither use nor threaten to use force as a means of conflict resolution within the group. The Canadian-American security community is remarkable in that nearly two centuries have passed since the two countries last fought each other, and a century since either made a credible threat of force against the other. In this remarkably original description of the continental security community, Stephane Roussel has set out to explain North America's "long peace," and he has succeeded. Skillfully employing insights gleaned from democratic peace theory -- a body of theory more typically applied outside the North American context -- Roussel demonstrates that the liberal-democratic domestic orders of the two countries account for the North American security community. Not only do these respective domestic orders predispose the continent toward peace, but they also serve to enhance the quality of security and defence cooperation between the neighbours, making the North American "democratic alliance" one of the world's premier collective defence structures. For anyone interested in how that alliance took shape, and how it is likely to evolve given the uncertainties of the current war on terror, Roussel's book makes for timely and invaluable reading. Queen's School of Policy Studies is proud to have facilitated its translation into English.

Contents:

1. A North American "Liberal Order"? 1

Part 1 Theorizing Bilateral Defence and Security

2. Asymmetry and Its Discontents 15

3. In Search of the "Equalizing Factors": Realism, Transnationalism, and Institutionalism 29

4. A Liberal-Constructivist Alternative 67

Part 2 Evolution of Cooperation

5. The Beginning: From the "Long Peace" to Conflict Resolution, 1867-1914 109

6. From Coexistence to Cooperation: The Common Defence of North America, 1914-1945 149

7. Business as Usual: The Joint Defence of North America, 1945-1958 193.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0889119376

0889119392

OCLC:

54906145