ABSTRACT
Can capitalism promote peace among nations? For many this might seem like an odd proposition, given the strong traditional view in the field of international relations that capitalism produces “merchants of death” (Engelbrecht and Hanighen 1934). Lenin blamed World War I on the capitalist quest for investment outlets (1970 [1917]). While Karl Deutsch et al. (1957) observed the existence of a “security community” among the highly capitalist states of Europe, neo-Marxist world-systems theory blamed five centuries of war, imperialism, and slavery all on the shoulders of capitalism (Wallerstein 1974).
