Social trust, anarchy, and international conflict / Michael P. Jasinski.

Includes bibliographical references (pages173-194) and index.

Democratic peace and diversionary war -- Anarchy, states, and nations -- Social trust and its origins -- Overcoming particularism -- The social trust theory of international conflict -- Research design -- Results -- The outbreak of World War I -- Analysis and conclusions.

S ocial Trust, Anarchy, and International Conflict challenges the democratic peace and diversionary war theories by emphasizing the importance of social trust, its origin as a by-product of effective governance exercised by strong states, and influence on international conflict. The author argues that strong states socialize individuals into social environments where self-esteem is gained not through comparisons against out-groups, but rather cooperative role fulfillment with other individuals. This socialization, which contributes to the formation of generalized social trust (itself a basic and powerful heuristic) is then carried over into the state{u2019}s interactions with international actors, contributing to their pacific behavior and even influencing the nature of international anarchy itself. As a result, democratic peace is not really peace between democracies but rather peace between strong, well-governed states, and diversionary war represents not an effort to improve regime popularity but rather state legitimacy.