Victorious and Vulnerable: Why Democracy Won in the Twentieth Century and How It Is Still Imperiled

by Azar Gat

In the blink of an eye, liberal democracy's moment of triumph was darkened by new threats, challenges, and doubts. Rejecting the view that liberal democracy's twentieth-century victory was inevitable, distinguished student of war Azar Gat argues that it largely rested on contingent factors and was more doubtful than has been assumed. The world's liberal democracies, with the United States at the forefront, face new and baffling security threats, with the return of capitalist nondemocratic great powers-China and Russia-and the continued threat of unconventional terror.

The democratic peace, or near absence of war among themselves, is a unique feature of liberal democracies' foreign policy behavior. Arguing that this is merely one manifestation of much more sweeping and less recognized pacifist tendencies typical of liberal democracies, Gat offers a panoramic view of their distinctive way in conflict and war. His book provides a politically and strategically vital understanding of the peculiar strengths and vulnerabilities that liberal democracy brings to the formidable challenges ahead.

Published in cooperation with the Hoover Institution

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction, Philosophy

140 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is essentially a conciser and slightly expanded argument from Gat's War in Human Civilization (WiHC) which I highly recommend. WiHC is definitely worth a read and broader scoped, so if you are interested in why liberal democracies were victorious, this book will be a shorter and more on point read. My only disappointment is that it is only a slight expansion from the argument embedded in WiHC.

The main argument is that liberal democracies' victory was much more historical contingency than inevitable, that with liberal democracies' strong points (avoiding unnecessary wars, creating beneficial trade, and a general desire to maintain human rights) are weak points (an inability to effectively deal with guerrilla-type warfare and unwillingness to use the necessary force to successfully intervene in situations such as against genocide or ethnic cleansing), and that the future of non-democratic capitalist powers such as China may pose an alternate model and challenge that might not succumb to liberal democratic values. Gat constructs good arguments, at the very least, for thinking about these points not as a call to any specific change, but as a historical evaluation of tendencies that one is better off being aware of.

[Tsubasa Calvert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. It's fascinating to see how his predictions of how liberal democracies respond to external threats have panned out today with the conflict between the West and the Russo-Chinese sphere - twelve years in advance, no less.

[Vikas Erraballi · Rating 4 out of 5]

He knows where his bread is buttered but still puts a solid narrative together