Approximately twelve years after the end of a one-year European Union (EU) arms embargo on Indonesia, the Dutch House of Representatives blocked the sale of second-hand conventional weapons to the...Show moreApproximately twelve years after the end of a one-year European Union (EU) arms embargo on Indonesia, the Dutch House of Representatives blocked the sale of second-hand conventional weapons to the former Dutch colony in 2012 . The House of Representatives cited human rights concerns as the main culprit for blocking the sale, overruling the minority government in its decision that a possible sale of arms would comply with European arms export criteria. The following year, the German federal government approved the same deal on the 8th of May, 2013. This decision appears paradoxical given the EU Common Position on Arms Exports , which attempts to harmonise the arms export policy of EU member states and requires them to deny arms export licenses to countries with poor human rights track records that may use the transferred arms in violation of international humanitarian law. The criteria of the Common Position prominently feature respect for human rights and the internationally agreed 'laws of war' and contain several mechanisms by which coherent results on behalf of arms export licensing are to be effectuated. Much as this thesis portrays a view of steady development in the area of European cooperation on arms control, it will conclude that EU member states remain sovereign in their decisions to export weapons when and to whom it suits them.Show less
Research master thesis | Political Science and Public Administration (research) (MSc)
open access
2017-01-01T00:00:00Z
Why do democracies not go to war with other democracies? The idea that the internalized liberal-democratic norms of peaceful conflict resolution within a democratic society are responsible for the...Show moreWhy do democracies not go to war with other democracies? The idea that the internalized liberal-democratic norms of peaceful conflict resolution within a democratic society are responsible for the democratic peace, also referred to as the normative explanation, remains subject to a particular lack of empirical academic attention. The few studies into the normative explanation have not tested what should be tested: whether liberal democratic norms indeed affect the behavior of democratic citizens in comparison to the behavior of nondemocratic citizens. This research performs an improved empirical test and studies (1) whether liberal norms exist in a democracy in comparison to a non-democracy and (2) whether these norms have an effect on the individuals of these societies concerning the wish to use force in International Relations. An experimental design showed that there was no significant difference between a group of Dutch students and a group of Chinese students when it comes to the use of force in IR. A marginal effect of the regime type for the democratic citizens was found. Remarkably, in a comparison with the autocratic experimental group, these democratic citizens turned out not to be specifically more peaceful towards other democracies, but rather more war-prone towards autocracies. The overall conclusion of this study is that for both experimental groups the perception of threat was the main indicator for a decision to attack. This research argues that, in contrast with earlier research, there is no support to the claim that the normative explanation can explain the empirically found peace between democracies.Show less
