Preface Interstate Competition in a Heterogeneous World: The Importance of Understanding Violent Peace -- The Issue -- The Origins of Violent Peace: Explaining the Use of Force in Foreign Policy -- Latin America's Violent Peace -- Analyzing Latin America's Violent Peace -- The Myth of Hegemonic Management -- Democracy, Restrained Leadership and the Use of Military Force -- The Distribution of Power and Military Conflict -- Military Leadership and the Use of Force: Illustrations from the Beagle Channel Dispute -- Democracies and the Use of Force: Suggestions from the Ecuador-Peru Dispute -- Militarized Bargaining in Latin America: Prospects for Diminishing Its Use.