Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Cultural identity has become prominent in studies of world politics in the post-Cold War era. Political culture has become increasingly salient as evidenced by the bourgeoning literature on the democratic peace thesis. Social culture has also become a major focus in studies of world politics that focus on the impact of ?clashing civilizations? on international relations. Although analysts have tested each framework in light of the other and found democratic peace claims more salient (e.g. Russett et al 2000; Henderson & Tucker 2001), a recent study suggests a new specification of the democratic peace and calls into question the empirical accuracy of the democratic peace thesis in the postwar era. Since this specification was not used in previous tests of the relative salience of democratic peace and clash of civilizations claims, in this study we revisit this issue in order to determine the accuracy of these two prominent theses on culture in world politics. Using multivariate logistic regression analyses we do not find support for either democratic peace or clash of civilizations claims; therefore, it seems that neither of the two most prominent theses on the role of culture in world politics is empirically substantiated.