Cold war April 28 2014 Missing the cold war Some scholars argue that the end of the cold war is dangerous If the soviet union crumbles multipolarity is likely the cause of an increase in tensions If so a resurgent Germany may exacerbate security concerns In order to calm this insecurity Mearsheimer and others argue for the carefully managed selective proliferation of nuclear weapons Is the post cold war era more peaceful Much of the previous is from the perspective of the time near the collapse of the soviet union In that we should give credit to the thoughtful predictions optimistic or pessimistic But we have the benefit of examining the past two decades and have evidence to confirm or discern From the data a bi polarity seems to offer no pacifying effect to the international system and war trends decrease after the end of the soviet union Assuming predictions By these measures seems like mershiemer and others pessimistic predictions haven t borne out at least in the near quarter century since the end of the cold war But by no means is war obsolete Interstate war becoming increasingly rare How can we account for the seeming absence of major interstate war A spurious relationship Despite criticisms many point to growth in democracies as peaceful influence Hard to dispute general correlation b t democracy and peace Many have taken this as casual What third factor causes both democracy and peace the absence of territorial disputes less That is democracy translates to peace But what if that relationship is spurious and less nations have border disputes and therefore no reason to fight Territorial disputes Most wars are the result of territorial disputes States value territorial integrity As such the absence of territorial disputes may lead to peaceful interactions between states Other disagreements aren t as important less incentive to go to war But how does the absence of territorial disputes lead to democracy External threat militarized societies autocracies States that face territorial threats means large standing armies Standing armies require high taxation Spending on guns and limited spending on butter limited economic growth If this leads to high inequality and pressure from the poor Essentially democracy becomes possible when no external threat therefore no need to take from poor in the form of building a military Increases mobility of capital throughout populous Spreading democracy Stability on one side translates to stability on the other Democracy is what can happen when states resolve their territorial disputes