International Security

Many international peacebuilders have suggested that integrating opposing combatants into a national military after civil war helps prevent conflict from recurring. Analysis of eleven cases of post–civil war military integration, however, reveals little evidence to support this claim. Underlying political conditions, not military integration, determine whether peace endures.

In developing neorealist theory, Kenneth Waltz sought to reconcile the tenets of classical realism with those of liberal democracy. Classical realists called for foreign policy to be forged by elite decisionmakers, unconstrained by legal norms and public opinion. Waltz, by contrast, argued that the international system, rather than individual decisionmakers, shaped international relations.

Given the nature of intentions, there is little Washington and Beijing will be able to do or say to persuade the other side that it has and will always have peaceful intentions. In tomorrow's Asia, great power conflict is destiny.

Many scholars argue that great powers can reach confident conclusions about each other's intentions, but these claims are unpersuasive. Neither the domestic characteristics nor behavior of states offers a reliable basis on which to evaluate intentions. These limitations support the theoretical claims of structural realism: competition, not cooperation, will remain the norm among states.

Improvements in military medicine are costly to implement, and their costs are often ignored. Governments must begin to adjust their estimates of the costs of war to include the effects of increases in nonfatal casualties.

William G. Nomikos responds to Alexander B. Downes and Jonathan Monten's Spring 2013 International Security article, "Forced to Be Free?: Why Foreign-Imposed Regime Change Rarely Leads to Democratization."

Alex J. Bellamy responds to Robert A. Pape's Spring 2013 International Security correspondence, "Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect."

International Security is America’s leading journal of security affairs. It provides sophisticated analyses of contemporary security issues and discusses their conceptual and historical foundations. The journal is edited at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and published quarterly by the MIT Press.