Third World zones of peace

International relations scholars have traditionally sought to explain war rather than peace. As a result, explanations for peace have been understudied. Most international security research has emphasized the genesis of peace or the beginning of wars. In contrast, we should do more to examine the maintenance of international peace over extended periods. We can focus, as illustrations, on peace in two regions of the Third World: South America and West Africa. We can begin with two major questions: First, how can we explain the maintenance of peace at the regional level in general, and in South America and West Africa in particular? Second, can regional peace be maintained among states that do not sustain democratic regimes? The first question has been examined by both realists and liberals in the literature on the conditions of peace and the causes of war. For realists, the paramount question remains how to prevent war, rather than how to expand and deepen peace. Conversely, for liberals, this question add...