Victorious and Vulnerable: Why Democracy Won in the 20th Century and How it is Still Imperiled

by Azar Gat

Overview

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442201163
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/16/2009
Series:	Hoover Studies in Politics, Economics, and Society
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	140
File size:	262 KB

About the Author

Azar Gat is Ezer Weizman Professor of National Security at Tel Aviv University and the author of several books on war and military thought including War in Human Civilization (Oxford University Press), named by the Times Literary Supplement as one of the best books of 2006.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 Chapter 1: Why Democracy Won in the Twentieth Century
Chapter 3 Chapter 2: The Ascent of Capitalist Parliamentarianism
Chapter 4 Chapter 3: Free Trade or Imperialism?
Chapter 5 Chapter 4: The Return of the Nondemocratic Great Powers
Chapter 6 Chapter 5: The Modern Transformation and the Democratic Peace
Chapter 7 Chapter 6: The Democracies' Way in Conflict
Chapter 8 Chapter 7: Why Counterinsurgency Fails (with Gil Merom)
Chapter 9 Chapter 8: Did Democracies Exterminate the Natives of North America and Australia?
Chapter 10 Chapter 9: Unconventional Terror and the New World Disorder
Chapter 11 Chapter 10: Conclusion: Strength and Vulnerablities
Chapter 12 List of Liberal Democracies' Unique Behavioral Traits in Conflict
Chapter 13 Notes
Chapter 14 Index

What People are Saying About This

Robert J. Lieber

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.

Editorial Reviews

Gat, a professor of national security at Tel Aviv University, a Hoover Institution fellow, and author (War in Human Civilization), has gained an international reputation as a military historian and security analyst. In this look at liberal democracies in conflict, he does not directly challenge their "deeply structural" attitude toward conduct in war, a characteristic "written in their DNA," but suggests that general moral and legal parameters can be refined, through policy and strategy, using "a better awareness of the underlying patterns of the democracies' behavior in conflict." In particular, he finds fault with "normative-legal aspects" of liberal national defense that favor pacifism and appeasement: such tendencies render them vulnerable to a determined enemy without such scruples. Opposition to detention without trial, torture, and wiretapping, Gat says, has "a bitterly ideological and righteous character," rigid where it should be adaptable to changing realities and enemy tactics; on the battlefield, "self-imposed restrictions on violence against civilian population" can "render often-successful military operations futile." Suggesting that we "are inclined to rationalize backwards," Gat finds examples in the simplistic notions of the allied victory in WWII, which he suggests was "anything but preordained." A contentious contribution to the foreign policy debate that raises important issues, Gat's latest will engross security wonks.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

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