Just How Liberal Is the Liberal Peace?

AbstractThis article assesses the extent to which the liberal peace (the dominant form of internationally supported peacemaking) actually deserves the sobriquet 'liberal peace'. In recent years, an intense debate emerged on this question as critics of the critique of the liberal peace have sought to downplay the dominance of the liberal peace. These debates are interesting but they are mainly based on qualitative analysis supplemented with some case study material, and often rely on assertions rather than evidence. This article seeks to add to this debate with simple aggregate data from the Peace Accords Matrix that is comprehensive and comparative. The article constructs a five-part framework to analyse the liberal elements of peace accords liberalism and then tracks the extent…