MATERIALES Y RECURSOS DIDÁCTICOS

Immanuel Kant with his essay “Perpetual Peace”32 _{was the first person to} link the ideal of democracy with the preservation of world peace. According to Kant, there are three main elements of a peaceful coexistence between republics. Each element will be briefly analyzed in the following sections.

1. Democracy and Public Opinion

Public opinion plays an important role in the planning and application of one state’s foreign policy. In particular, it can act as a counterforce against any kind of violent behavior or antagonism. As Kant stated, “if the consent of the citizens is required in order to decide that war should be declared, nothing is more natural than that they would be very cautious in commencing such a poor game, decreeing for themselves all the calamities of war.”33

Many academics have supported Kant’s views by arguing that the public opinion can indeed affect the foreign policy of a democratic state.34 _{Of course,} the degree of influence that the public opinion has varies, and it is analogous to each democracy’s political and constitutional procedures.35 _{If we especially} examine the case of dyadic relations, then it is possible that the greater the public’s opinion influence, the bigger the danger of hindering cooperation between states.36 _{That happens because usually in democratic states the}

32 _{Immanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace and Other Essays on Politic, History, and Morals} (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1983).

33 _{Ibid., 12.}

34 _{Bruce Russett, Controlling the Sword: The Democratic Governance of National Security} (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990).

35 _{Thomas Risse-Kappen, “Public Opinion, Domestic Structure, and Foreign Policy in Liberal} Democracies,” World Politics 43, (1991): 479–512.

36 _{Robert Putnam, “Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games,”}

government must first precede with the ratification of its policies on a domestic level, then move forward and start negotiating on the international level.

2. International Trade

The second vital element of the democratic peace theory always, according to Kant, can be summarized in his following statement: “A peaceful traffic among nations was established, and thus understanding, conventions, and peaceable relations were established among the most distant people.”37 _{In the} majority of the cases, international commerce entails great profits for democratic states, which can be translated into increased levels of prosperity for the citizens of these states. Consequently, the majority of the democratic states “are self- deterred from fighting wars against one another because of the prospective losses that could result from disrupted trade.”38 _{Many researchers verify Kant’s} argument that trade is a major contributor to peaceful relations and thus states with strong commercial ties are less likely to start a war.39 _{Naturally, there are} also some objections to the previous argument. More specifically, many scholars do not deny the peaceful aspects of trade; however, they support the view that economic interdependence can lead to conflictual situations as well.40 Nevertheless, since the majority of the states in the international system choose their trade partners based on the element of mutual trust, and always having in mind the security implications involved in such activities, major academics support a general conclusion. This conclusion states that even if commercial ties

37 _{Kant, Perpetual Peace, 28.}

38 _{Steve Chan, “In Search of Democratic Peace: Problems and Promise,” Mershon}

International Studies Review 41, no.1 (May 1997), 75.

39 _{Solomon W. Polachek, “Conflict and Trade,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 24, no.2} (1980): 55–78; William K. Domke, War and Changing Global System (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988); William J. Nixon and Bruce E. Moon, “Political Similarity and American Foreign Trade Patterns,” Political Research Quarterly 46, no.3 (1993): 5–25; Joanne Gowa,

Allies, Adversaries, and International Trade (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994);Edward

D. Mansfield, Power, Trade and War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).

40 _{Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Complex Interdependence: World Politics in}

Transition (Boston: Little Brown, 1977); Michael S. De Vries, “Interdependence, Cooperation and

are not absolutely certain that they can lead to peace, democratic countries have the tendency to establish close trade relations with each other and furthermore they have more peaceful relations among them.41

3. Establishment of a Peaceful Confederation

The establishment of a peaceful confederation between the already existent democratic states will avert them from going to war. This kind of association will help towards the consolidation of internationally shared norms and values, which in turn will contribute, to the strengthening of peaceful procedures for the resolution of interstate problematic issues. According again to Kant, a peaceful confederation would “eventually include all nations and thus lead to perpetual peace.”42 _{Steve Chan states the causal mechanism behind this} argument briefly, “as democracies increase in number, a general strategy for conditional cooperation should become more attractive for all states. The norms guiding democracies’ interactions could evolve into the dominant pattern in international relations.”43 _{Following the same logic, Daniel Deudney suggested} that, “a world dominated by liberal states affords the remaining illiberal states both a need and an opportunity to liberalize.”44

It is clear that Greece’s policy of rapprochement towards Turkey after 1999 was based on these three elements. The political leaders of Greece realized, especially after the Imia crisis of 1996 where the two countries reached the brink of war, that the only way to gain public support is to initiate a policy of appeasement towards Turkey. It is evident that citizens are not willing to pay the grave consequences of a military conflict; on the other hand, the deeper

41 _{John R. Oneal, Frances H. Oneal, Zeev Maoz, and Bruce M. Russet, “The Liberal Peace:} Interdependence, Democracy, and International Conflict, 1950–1985,” Journal of Peace

Research 33, (1996): 11–28; Joanne Gowa and Edward D. Mansfield, “Power Politics and

International Trade,” American Political Science Review 87, (1993): 408–20. 42 _{Kant, Perpetual Peace, 117.}

43 _{Chan, “In Search of Democratic Peace,” 77.}

44 _{Daniel Deudney, “The International Sources of Soviet Change,” International Security 16,} no.3 (1991), 97.

integration of Greece in the European Union can offer only advantages for the Greek population. Therefore, it was evident that the majority of the Greek population supported the decision of the government to back Turkey’s European aspirations. Consequently, during the 2004 election, when a new government was elected, the conservative party of “New Democracy” took the power from the Pan-Hellenic Socialist Party (PASOK), but the policy of rapprochement towards Turkey remained the same.

Furthermore, Greece, by its decision to support Turkey’s efforts for accession in the EU, opened the road towards the Custom Union of Turkey with the EU. In this way, Greece tried to enhance its bilateral economic relations with its neighboring state in order to increase the costs of a future conflict. Finally, the negotiations between the EU and Turkey concerning the entrance of the latter in the European family will certainly lead Turkey to a further democratization of its political system. This means that Turkey must adopt a less aggressive behavior towards its neighboring states and, in general, will have to adopt norms, values and patterns of behavior that will help towards the peaceful resolution of conflictual issues.