Democratic Participation in Armed Conflict: Military Involvement in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq

When do democracies participate in armed conflict and when do they abstain? Studies on the democratic peace have largely neglected democratic war involvement. Moreover, while scholars made the case that democracy needs to be unpacked to be meaningful, this is rarely done in international relations. In comparative politics, on the other hand, there has been extensive research on democratic subtypes, but this is seldom applied to security policy. Democratic Participation in Armed Conflict provides an integrative theoretical framework that draws on the novel methodological approach of fsQCA. The book identifies pathways of military participation and abstention across 30 democracies and their involvement in the conflicts in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.