DEMOCRACY AND FOREIGN-POLICY - THE FALLACY OF POLITICAL REALISM - NINCIC,M

In Democracy and Foreign Policy, Miroslav Nincic takes to task, in a laudable and highly analytic way, the political realist's view of the relationship between a democracy and the conduct of its foreign policy. A consequence of the perspective of realists is that most of their arguments lead to the view that the conduct of foreign affairs should be left solely to the experts with as little interference as possible from citizens and non-experts within government. A battery of plausible and contentious realist arguments is opened up to challenge by Nincic. A critical assessment and appraisal of Nincic's counterarguments is provided, indicating their virtues and some of their weaknesses. Some possible strengthenings of his case are also discussed, particularly from the standpoint of recent work in peace research.