discussion questions

Submit your responses to the discussion team’s questions below. Please review the attached rubric and adhere to the following protocol:
Responses to each question should be a minimum of one short paragraph and a maximum of three paragraphs.
Address the questions as much as possible (don’t let the discussion stray).
Try to use quotes from the readings that support your responses. Include page numbers when you do so.

Question 1 (Emi): On page 331, Weeks describes how the audience will have preferences about starting a military conflict. Compare how the preference of the people in nonpersonalist civilian regimes (machines) and nonpersonalist military regimes (juntas) are expressed in the regime’s willingness to go to war.

Question 2 (Noah): Last week, we discussed Greve and Levys concepts on the Power Transition Theory which concluded that dissatisfied rising states have an incentive to overturn the status quo once they have reach parity with the leading state. Assuming China is the rising power and the U.S. is the leading power, should we be concerned with whether or not China is likely to go to war with us despite what Weeks findings on conflict initiation of nonpersonalist regimes?

Question 3 (Nile): How does Weeks interpretation of the different kinds of autocratic regimes compare to the traditional liberal understanding of democratic peace? Is Weeks persuasive in proving that some kinds of autocratic regimes are as peaceful as democratic states?