Bringing the ‘Community’ Back

Abstract

Though a great deal of scholarship has been devoted to the relationship between economic interdependence and conflict — the ‘liberal peace’ — the conceptual and analytic focus of this body of literature remains quite narrow. Seeking to improve upon extant literature, I incorporate Deutsch's concept of the ‘security community’ to provide a broader theoretical foundation for the impact of economic interdependence upon interstate relations. Next, I empirically explore where trade, the key independent variable in this body of literature, fits within the broader web of interactions and transactions that contribute towards the integrative process. I then employ events data to assess the impact of integration upon four different measures of interstate interactions — two types of interactions (conflict and cooperation) across two issue areas (economic and military).