Zones Of Peace In The Third World SUNY Series in Global Politics James N. Rosenau, Editor Zones Of Peace In The Third World South America and West Africa in Comparative Perspective Arie M. Kacowicz State University of New York Press Published by State University of New York Press © 1998 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, address the State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany, NY 12246 Production by Bernadine Dawes • Marketing by Dana Yanulavich Library of Congress Cataloging­in­Publication Data Kacowicz, Arie Marcelo. Zones of peace in the Third World : South America and West Africa in comparative perspective / Arie M. Kacowicz. p. cm. — (SUNY series in global politics) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0­7914­3957­7 (hc : alk. paper). — ISBN 0­7914­3958­5 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Zones of peace—South America. 2. Zones of peace—Africa, West. I. Title. II. Series. JZ5584.S63K33 1998 327.1'72'096609045—dc21 98­5620 CIP 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 To Itai With the hope that he will be able to grow in a zone of peace Contents Tables and Figures ix Preface xi 1.Zones of Peace in the International System 1 2.Explaining Zones of Peace in the International System 29 3.The South American Zone of Peace, 1883­1996 67 4.West Africa, 1957­1996: International Peace and Domestic Wars 125 5.Zones of Peace in a Comparative Perspective 177 Appendices 209 Notes 211 Bibliography 221 Index 257 Page ix Tables and Figures Table 2.1. A Framework for Explaining the Maintenance of Zones of Peace 60 Figure 3.1. Quality of Peace in South America, 1996 88 Figure 3.2. A Regional Balance of Power, 1883­1920s 93 Table 4.1. Successful Coups d'Etat in West Africa, 1963­1975 134 Table 4.2. Territorial Disputes and Nonterritorial Conflicts 145 Table 5.1. Major Differences between South America and West Africa 180 Table 5.2. Explanations for the Maintenance of Regional Peace in South 181 America and West Africa Table 5.3. Major Differences between South America and Central America 184 Table 5.4. Major Differences between West Africa and other African Regions 185 Table 5.5. Contemporary Wars in Africa 186 Table 5.6. Comparisons across Zones of Peace 192 Table 5.7. Explanations for the Maintenance of Regional Peace 199 Page xi Preface Several years ago, during my graduate studies at Princeton, I was puzzled by the subject of peaceful territorial change, trying to explain the conditions under which a process of change in the international status quo of territories could take place "peacefully," by means other than war. The focus of my inquiry was then dyadic (looking at pairs of states) and the starting point was dynamic—dealing with the problem of change in international relations. In this book, I attempt to explain the maintenance of extensive periods of interstate peace in two regions of the Third World—South America, since 1883; and West Africa, since its independence in the early 1960s. While domestic conflicts, endemic violence, and even virulent civil wars did take place within their states, a common pattern between these two otherwise disparate regions emerged from my inquiry: a majority of the countries in South America and West Africa have supported actively their territorial status quo (which I have defined here as "being satisfied"). Thus, their complex political reality has been characterized by a juxtaposition of domestic violence with international peace, in contrast to the tenets of the diversionary theory of war. Unlike my previous book, Peaceful Territorial Change, the focus of this volume is regional rather than dyadic, diachronic, and evolutionary, looking at the possible transitions among different levels or gradations of regional peace over extended periods of time. Interestingly enough, the practical question of how to maintain and deepen peace has been almost ignored by Page xii scholars of international relations, who have been concerned only with studying the transitions from war to peace, or from peace to war. Moreover, terms such as ''long peace" and "zones of peace" have been usually associated with the absence of war in Europe during the Cold War period (1945­89) and/or with the separate peace among democracies progressively developed throughout the last two hundred years. In this book, by contrast, I consider the historical and theoretical relevance of "zones of peace" in the particular context of the Third World, beyond the original Eurocentric scope. This project, which was originally conceived back in the summer of 1992, has benefited immensely from the intellectual input and encouragement of a large number of colleagues, friends, and graduate students. Several ideas, versions, papers, and drafts were presented at undergraduate and graduate seminars and colloquia at the Department of International Relations of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, ISA and APSA Conferences, and at the Center for International Studies of Princeton University. Many colleagues from North and South America, Europe, New Zealand, and Israel have suggested precious comments and advice for the general theme of the book. Among them I want to thank Yaacov Bar­Siman­Tov, Sammy Basu, Jacques Bertrand, Raymond Cohen, Michael Doyle, George Downs, Alan Dowty, Miriam F. Elman, Alexander George, Nils P. Gleditsch, Kal Holsti, Mathias Kaelberer, Korina Kagan, Jack Levy, Benjamin Miller, C. R. Mitchell, Bruce Russett, Avi Segal, Arik Shamir, Richard Ullman, Yaacov Vertzberger, and Bill Wolfhort. I especially appreciate the warm support and inspiration given by Emanuel Adler, Michael Barnett, and Jacob Bercovitch. In addition, I was lucky enough to contact area specialists who read and commented on my two case studies. For the West African case, I am grateful to David Blaney, Henry Bienen, Jeffrey Herbst, Philip Huxtable, and especially to Crawford Young. For the South American case, I acknowledge the advice and comments of Rut Diamint, Yale Ferguson, Andrew Hurrell, Helio Jaguaribe, Carlos Moneta, Roberto Russell, and especially Michael Barletta. Throughout these five years, I received generous support from the Research and Development Authority of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, its Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations, and a special fund for postdoctoral research grants from the Israel Foundations Trustees. Page xiii Through the sponsorship of those institutions, I was fortunate to get research assistance from exceptional students such as Tzion Elam, Avigail Freizer, and Mirav Yaacovson. For their precious help, I want also to thank the staffs of the Harry Truman Institute Library, Social Sciences Library at the Hebrew University, and Firestone Library at Princeton University, as well as Meir for technical assistance at the photocopy center of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Hebrew University. The production stages of this book benefited from the hospitality and research environment provided by the Helen Kellogg and Joan Kroc Institutes of the University of Notre Dame. I also want to express my appreciation for the superb assistance and cooperation from the State University of New York Press editorial staff, including Clay Morgan, Zina Lawrence, and Bernadine Dawes, in the transformation of the manuscript into a book. Some sections of chapters 1, 4, and 5 were published in earlier versions in my articles "Explaining Zones of Peace: Democracies as Satisfied Powers?" Journal of Peace Research 33, no. 3 (August 1995); "Third World Zones of Peace," Peace Review 9, no. 2 (June 1997); and "'Negative' International Peace and Domestic Conflicts, West Africa, 1957­96,'' Journal of Modem African Studies 35, no. 3 (September 1997). I thank the publishers of those journals for allowing me to use that material. Finally, three individuals have been generous enough to read most if not all of the manuscript: Moshe Abalo, a Ph.D. candidate and good friend whose insights and ideas contributed decisively to improve the overall quality of this book; Oded Levenheim, an incisive graduate student who finally got the opportunity to criticize my own work after I graded him several times in different courses; and my beloved wife Orly, who encouraged me to write about zones of peace even if the subject reads like a novel of "political fiction" in the local Middle Eastern context. The idea of this book has coincided with the birth of our son, Itai, and the hope that he might be able to grow up in a zone of peace, even if it will be an incipient "negative" peace, characterized only by the absence of international wars. Page 1 Chapter 1 Zones of Peace in the International System International relations scholars have traditionally focused their efforts in explaining war rather than peace, both in dyadic and in systemic terms. As a result, different explanations for peace have been understudied or underemphasized, with the exception of normative approaches (see Rummel 1981; Rapoport 1992; Galtung 1964, 1975; Smoker 1981; Stephenson 1989; and Johnson 1976). Most of the research on security issues has focused upon the genesis of peace (i.e., war termination), or the termination of peace, escalation of international crises, and conflict eruption (i.e., the beginning of wars). By contrast, in this book I explain the maintenance of extensive periods of international "negative" peace—defined as the absence of international wars—in two regions of the Third World: South America and West Africa. Unlike other studies of peace and war, the unit of analysis moves here from the dyadic level to the subsystemic or regional level.