The Great Capitalist Peace is an ideal that can never be achieved in reality due to the fallen nature of mankind. Lieven and Hulsman contrast the philosophy of the Great Capitalist Peace with the philosophy of the Democratic Peace which states that if all nations were democracies war would cease to exist. I think their emphasis on economics, rather than on political structures is important because democracies are not all the same and they have fought each other in the past. However, the Great Capitalist Peace emphasizes that if all nations share in the global economy they will be less likely to go to war. This is more feasible than the argument about democracies, though it is a goal that can never be obtained. Humanity is naturally flawed and constantly seeks greater and greater advantages at the expense of others. Therefore nations, composed of humans seek conflict with their enemies to achieve the goals for which they strive. Not all nations would voluntarily agree to such economic conditions and even if they did this will not lead ultimately to universal peace. Just because economic connections provide a disincentive for nations to go to war with one another that does not mean that such economic interconnectedness will eliminate conflict altogether.
While it is a noble goal the Great Capitalist Peace is an ideal that simply can never be achieved. This is because universal peace is not possible no matter the mechanism used to achieve it. While I believe that the Great Capitalist Peace, in which all people have a stake in the international economy, is the best hope at eliminating conflict to a certain extent. When all people have a stake in the global economy they will be less likely to jeopardize that prosperity through conflict and a relative peace will result. However, in certain situations the desire for conflict will exceed the desire to maintain trade relations and the nation will be willing to sacrifice its economic success for military struggle in hopes that it will obtain even greater success. Subsequently the Great Capitalist Peace will fail to eliminate all conflict.
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Your phrase "the desire for conflict" made me ponder about conflict and whether it is indeed an innate characteristic of mankind. For instance, you say that "the desire for conflict will exceed the desire to maintain trade relations" which made me wonder why man sometimes ruins things even when they are going smoothly and everyone is happy? Is it some inherent desire to always have a struggle to make life interesting maybe? Just a thought...
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