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

When do democracies participate in military operations, and under which conditions do they abstain? Studies on the democratic peace have largely neglected the flipside of democratic participation in armed conflict. Moreover, whilst scholars have 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 and their virtues and weaknesses, but this is seldom applied to security policy.

In this book, Mello provides a unique theoretical framework that integrates various explanatory approaches for a systematic comparative analysis of the conditions for democratic war involvement. Drawing on a novel methodological approach, this book identifies pathways of military participation and abstention across thirty democracies and their (non-)involvement in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Patrick A. Mello is a Research Associate and Lecturer at Dresden University of Technology, Germany. His research interests include international relations theory and the influence of domestic politics on foreign policy as well as comparative and case study research methods. He has written articles for the European Journal of International Relations and the Journal of International Relations and Development.