Racialization of the democratic peace in foundational embedding models

Abstract

One of the most prominent theories in modern international relations is the democratic peace theory, which posits that democracies tend not to engage in armed conflicts with fellow democracies. Recently, Rathbun, Parker, and Pomeroy examined this effect at a microstructural level, performing surveys, computational studies, and meta-analysis. Of particular originality in their work was embedding analysis, which I review and offer a systematic critique of. Then, I propose a new and improved methodology that addresses its issues while leveraging foundational embedding models. My replication results agree with their findings that the democratic peace effect is racialized, that is, it is associated with racial and ethnocentric motivations. The findings offer a timely guide in conducting embedding analysis in political science research.