The Importance of Friendship: The Democratic Peace from a Social-Constructivist Perspective

Although the Democratic Peace Theory is deeply enrooted in liberal thinking, the finding can be explained more convincingly form a social-constructivist perspective. This paper focuses on the importance of identity perception and national identities in the decision to go to war. It argues that the social-construction of belonging to a family of liberal democracies is central part of the national identity of “Western” states. Thus they go to war in order to defend this “liberal family”. It aims to show how democratic countries construct their enemies as diametrical opposed to their own liberal values, using the example of Canada and the Canadian decision to join the intervention in Afghanistan in 2001. Furthermore it also takes into account the crucial social construction of friendship between democratic states, by analyzing the important role that US-Canadian relationship played in the Canadian discourse following September 11th 2001.