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This article argues that the democratic peace theorists have overlooked the defining development that underlies that peace of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: the industrial-technological revolution. Not only did that revolution make democracy on a country scale possible; it also madeallthe countries that experienced the revolution—democratic and nondemocratic—far less belligerent in comparison with preindustrial times. The democratic peace did not exist among premodern democratic and republican city-states, not because they were not democratic or liberal enough but because they were premodern. Other factors that have emanated from the modern transformation and may generate greater aversion to war apply mostly to liberal democratic countries while being only variably connected to their regime. Such factors include the staggering rise in the standard of living; the decrease in hardship, pain, and death; the dominance of metropolitan life and the service economy; the spread of the consumer and entertainment society; sexual promiscuity; women's franchise; and the shrinking ratio of young males in the population.

This article argues that the democratic peace theorists have overlooked the defining development that underlies that peace of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: the industrial-technological revolution. Not only did that revolution make democracy on a country scale possible; it also made all the countries that experienced the revolution - democratic and nondemocratic - far less belligerent in comparison with preindustrial times. The democratic peace did not exist among premodern democratic and republican city-states, not because they were not democratic or liberal enough but because they were premodern. Other factors that have emanated from the modern transformation and may generate greater aversion to war apply mostly to liberal democratic countries while being only variably connected to their regime. Such factors include the staggering rise in the standard of living; the decrease in hardship, pain, and death; the dominance of metropolitan life and the service economy; the spread of the consumer and entertainment society; sexual promiscuity; women's franchise; and the shrinking ratio of young males in the population. (World Politics / SWP)

Going beyond the still prevalent image of the interwar period as the scene of struggles between progress & reaction in strategic doctrine, this article analyzes the factors that shaped the formulation of strategy & doctrine in each of the great powers. It shows how underlying technological trends & sweeping visions of warfare on land, in the air, & at sea had to be squared with practical questions & intricate problems of application & detail, as well as with differing national aims, priorities, & constraints. Adapted from the source document.

Throughout history, fighting has been associated with men. Cross-cultural studies of male/female differences have found serious violence as the most distinctive sex difference there is. Is that a matter of education & social conventions, or are men naturally far more adapted to fighting than women are? This question is at the center of public debate nowadays regarding the right & ability of women to enlist in combat roles in the armed services. The article attempts to elucidate the nature of the biocultural interactions involved, whose complexity, & even existence, are all too often ignored in the debate. Adapted from the source document.