To compete and thrive in the 21st century, democracies, and the United States in particular, must develop new national security and economic strategies that address the geopolitics of information. In the 20th century, market capitalist democracies geared infrastructure, energy, trade, and even social policy to protect and advance that era’s key source of power—manufacturing. In this century, democracies must better account for information geopolitics across all dimensions of domestic policy and national strategy.
Why do some interstate rivalries end while others persist? Why do some states decide to pursue peaceful relations while others remain stuck in militarized competition? Using evidence from five nuclear rivalries along with quantitative evidence from the universe of interstate rivalries since World War II, Christopher Clary, MTA/ISP Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow, will demonstrate that domestic economic conditions motivate leaders to pursue conciliatory policies toward historic rivals when those leaders have firm control over their state's foreign policy institutions.