Jessika Weeks distinguishes between ‘key’ different types of authoritarian regimes by identifying which are more likely to resort to conflict and which are less. To examine the difference between democratic and authoritarian regimes, scholars have identified how the domestic political system, audience cost mechanisms, and other related factors affect foreign policy preferences. However, this paper identifies and discusses these factors in understanding the foreign policy behaviors of ‘different authoritarian regimes.’ This makes the reader understand how the authoritarian regime types interact with society and the general norms/rules that regulate the operation of the government. With this, Weeks examined and concluded that some authoritarian regimes like Machines and Juntas behave like democratic counterparts when it comes to war & peace. This means that even authoritarian leaders face incentives much like democracies, which I believe is a novel contribution to academic literature. This fantastic piece of paper constitutes a leap forward in studying authoritarian regimes.
