Democracy Studies Annual Lecture
Does liberal peace remain relevant in an era of democratic decline?
Thursday 6 November 2025
h. 17:00
AFL F 121
Kristian Skrede Gleditsch
Regius Professor of Political Science, University of Essex
Research Professor, Peace Research Institute of Oslo
A great deal of research has shown empirical support for the idea of a liberal peace, where armed conflict is deemed less likely between two states when both are democracies, have more trade or greater economic interdependence, and more shared memberships in international organization. However, optimism over the prospects of growing a liberal peace have now been tempered by concerns that democracy appears to be under threat and in decline in many countries. Added to this we see previous trends toward trade liberalization replaced by more protectionist pressures and greater emphasis on economic self-reliance, and international organizations such as the United Nations are often paralyzed with increased tension between the global powers. Can the liberal remain relevant with these headwinds, and what are the implications for conflict? In this talk I will evaluate this by examining the plausible specific mechanisms underlying liberal peace, their robustness to changes, and potential countervailing forces. This in turn provides a basis for evaluating different scenarios for the global outlook of conflict in the immediate and longer run.
Past Annual Lectures
Watch past Democracy Studies Annual Lectures on our Media Space
2024 Ross Mittiga, "Climate Change as political catastrophe"
2023 Gwendolyn Sasse "What does Russia‘s war against Ukraine teach us about democracy?"
2022 Stefano Bartolini "The Nature of Political Institutions"
2021 Bo Rothstein "Is there a contradiction between democracy and quality of government?"