This guy is another hero of mine. His website is not pretty (Sorry Rudy), but it is well worth a visit. See below:
Here is an astonishing fact: No two democracies have ever been to war with each other!
Needless to say, some definitions are in order here. What is a democracy, for a start, when every government in the world calls itself a democracy? For the time being, I am going to say that a country is democratic if it possesses and uses the means to change its government by the ballot box and without violence. A bit rough and ready but it works. North Korea doesn't qualify; Canada does. What is war? Rudy suggests a minimum number of military casualties. I'll go for 100; but it works for 10 or 1000.
You are probably doing the "What about the Neverland vs Utopia conflict of 1822-1824?" thing. Email me; post a comment!
Professor Rummel has spent years in collecting the data. The detail is sickening. He should be better known. More Americans than Europeans know of him.
Other important observations include the one that democracies don't commit Democide (his invention). Totalitarian regimes in the 20th century slaughtered 100s of millions of their own people. Democracies didn't. Also that the bloodbath that was the 20th century featured far far more civilian than military dead.
Democracies do go to war - but not with each other.
What conclusion should we draw? It seems obvious. The democracies should form a club whose sole objective is to enroll all other states. They should do this by incentives, which should be easy because democracies are (almost by definition) richer than other states. Sanctions should play a part, where these do not hurt the innocent - so (perhaps) no arms supplies to tyrants . What about denying visas to tyrants who want sophisticated medical treatment in New York or Berlin? The club should also do it by energetic encouragement of democratic movements - including finance and intelligence.
Don't drink to World Peace without realising that it means Democracy for All!
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