Victorious and Vulnerable

In the blink of an eye, liberal democracy's moment of triumph was darkened by new threats, challenges, and doubts. Rejecting the view that liberal democracy's twentieth-century victory was inevitable, distinguished student of war Azar Gat argues that it largely rested on contingent factors and was more doubtful than has been assumed. The world's liberal democracies, with the United States at the forefront, face new and baffling security threats, with the return of capitalist nondemocratic great powers China and Russia and the continued threat of unconventional terror. The democratic peace, or near absence of war among themselves, is a unique feature of liberal democracies' foreign policy behavior. Arguing that this is merely one manifestation of much more sweeping and less recognized pacifist tendencies typical of liberal democracies, Gat offers a panoramic view of their distinctive way in conflict and war. His book provides a politically and strategically vital understanding of the peculiar strengths and vulnerabilities that liberal democracy brings to the formidable challenges ahead. Published in cooperation with the Hoover Institution

ISBN 1442201142   Pages 140 ISBN13 9781442201149 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 478 Publisher Rowman & Littlefield   Published in Lanham, MD Imprint Rowman & Littlefield Publishers   Series title Hoover Studies in Politics, Economics, and Society Format Hardback   Height (mm) 242 Publication date 16 Dec 2009   Width (mm) 162 DEWEY 321.80904   Spine width (mm) 21 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level Postgraduate

1		Why Democracy Won in the Twentieth Century		1
2		The Ascent of Capitalist Parliamentarianism		15
3		Free Trade or Imperialism?		39
4		The Return of the Nondemocratic Great Powers		59
5		The Modern Transformation and the Democratic Peace		87
6		The Democracies' Way in Conflict		117
7		Why Counterinsurgency Fails (with Gil Merom)		131
8		Did Democracies Exterminate the Natives of North America and Australia?		153
9		Unconventional Terror and the New World Disorder		163
10		Conclusion: Strengths and Vulnerabilities		181
		Democracies' Unique Traits in Conflict		195
		Notes		199
		Index		223

Azar Gat s new book is a worthy successor to his magisterial work on war and civilization. Here, he transcends the by now familiar debates about the democratic peace and the End of History. In this brilliant and highly original work, Gat shows not only why democracies triumphed over their authoritarian, fascist, and communist adversaries in the past century, but simultaneously calls attention to the democracies unique vulnerabilities.--Robert J. Lieber

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