International-relations theorists since Immanuel Kant have held that democracies rarely (if ever) fight one another; as a result, political leaders, such as US President Woodrow Wilson, have tried to promote democracy as a means to spread peace. Until recently, the US seemed to have assumed that China’s engagement with Western democracies would bolster peaceful ties.
这一失败的原因何在？自康德以来的国际关系理论家都认为，民主国家间很少互相开战；因此，政治领导人，如美国总统威尔逊，试图通过推进民主作为扩大和平的途径。直到最近，美国似乎一直都认为中国加入西方民主阵营能推动和平关系。