Institutions to Manage Threats

A sequenced architecture of commitment can be a good way to strengthen peace agreements and confidence-building. Late twentieth-century drivers of declining armed conflict can be reenergized for future declines. Single thin reeds of war prevention snap, yet they work when local and international society invests to bind them together in a fabric of multidimensional peacebuilding. Just as market manipulators have progressively learnt new ways to game markets, over time democracy manipulators learnt how to game democracy. The best way to win elections became to misgovern. Earlier in democracy’s evolution, the best way to win elections was to govern well. Democracy’s virtues can be retrieved by investing in checks and balances that temper domination.