The Purse Strings of Peace

This article examines how commerce promotes peace between states. It diverges from the commercial peace literature and its predominant focus on international trade by looking inside the domestic economy to see how its structure influences conflict. Drawing on selectorate theory, I argue that substantial quantities of public property generate fiscal autonomy for governments, strengthen their hold on the domestic reigns of power, and create opportunities to pursue more aggressive foreign policies. A series of statistical tests shows that greater quantities of publicly held assets increase the likelihood that a state will participate in military conflict. Given that the predominance of privately held property is one of the defining institutions of capitalism, these results support the claim that capitalism promotes peace.     

The Logic of Violence

To date, there is no synthetic, general theory of violence able to integrate the less complete theories of violent behaviour. There is little agreement among researchers about the causes of violence (not to mention what to do about it) and the field has become vast in terms of literature. This paper reviews theories of violence, mostly from sociology, political science and psychology both at the level of the individual and the collective. The paper is divided in two parts: the first deals with theories that see violence as a reaction, the second deals with those theories that see violence as a mean to attain goals.     

可量化的平安:全球平安指数及其对平安中国建设的启示

平安指数的建立可以比较全面地反映一个国家或地区平安建设的科学性,我国亟须在借鉴域外经验的基础上对平安指数进行系统研究.作为世界范围内受到广泛认可的平安指数体系,全球平安指数(GPI)对平安进行了概念化和量化,进而构建出评估各国平安状况的指标体系和权重体系.GPI包括内部和外部冲突、社会安全与保障以及军事水平3个一级指标(领域),内含23个二级指标.其指标体系历经14个版本的更迭,在数量、名称、算法和数据来源等方面不断优化,指数的精确性、简明性、匹配性、客观性和权威性不断增强.我国可以充分认识GPI的价值和局限,从宏观、中观和微观三个层面实现对平安中国指数的科学建构.     

Early Modern Religion Peace Agreements: Their Effects on the Ideological Development of Europe

A comparison is made between the Europe of 1400 and the Europe of today. How do we explain the way from then to now? Some interpreters argue that it has been a transformation from a Christian to a secular/secularized Europe. The argument presented here is that this is a premodern theory. Ideological developments in Europe in the last 500 years have not created a secularized continent, but a colorful one. And precisely this colorization (you can call it also pluralization) has its roots in the early modern Peace Agreements.