International Relations Essay. ONLY PROTOJE

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The Globalization of World Politics (6e)

7. Liberalism

Baylis, Smith & Owens

Baylis, Smith & Owens: The Globalization of World Politics 6e

Liberalism and realism

• If realism is the dominant theory of international relations, liberalism has a strong claim to be the historical alternative

• After WW2 as well as after the end of the cold war, liberal sentiments briefly appeared to be on the rise in international politics

• Subsequent developments did in each case bring realism back in vogue

Baylis, Smith & Owens: The Globalization of World Politics 6e

Four fundamental aspects of liberalism

• All citizens are equal and possess certain basic rights

• Any legislative assembly possesses only the authority that the people has invested in it – and their rights must not be abused

• The individual has the right to own property including productive forces

• For the most part, the market is the most effective system of economic exchange

Baylis, Smith & Owens: The Globalization of World Politics 6e

Liberalism and international relations

• States, like people, have different characteristics (such as being more or less war-prone)

• Anarchy is an IR system trait, but not the cause of conflict

• Depending on the strand of liberalism, imperialism, the balance of power, or undemocratic regimes are more to blame

• Collective security, and/or commerce, and/or a world government might remedy the problem

Baylis, Smith & Owens: The Globalization of World Politics 6e

Liberalism and international relations

• Kant claimed that liberal states are inherently pacifist in their international relations with other liberal states (a.k.a. democratic peace)

• Common legal frameworks, and increased trade have been identified as pacifying influences – in part because they underline a natural harmony of interests

• Many liberalists have come to embrace the idea that peace has to be constructed

Baylis, Smith & Owens: The Globalization of World Politics 6e

Liberalism and international relations

• Kant claimed that liberal states are inherently pacifist in their international relations with other liberal states (a.k.a. democratic peace)

• Common legal frameworks, and increased trade have been identified as pacifying influences – in part because they underline a natural harmony of interests

• Many liberalists have come to embrace the idea that peace has to be constructed

Baylis, Smith & Owens: The Globalization of World Politics 6e

Liberalism and international relations

• The League of Nations was an attempt to realise a system of collective security (meaning that every actor had a stake in the security of everyone else)

• The failure of the League contrasted rhetorical idealism and realpolitik

• The replacement, the UN, moderated collective security

Baylis, Smith & Owens: The Globalization of World Politics 6e

Liberalism and international relations

• Spreading collaboration processes lead to gradually deeper system embeddedness and integration as the costs of withdrawing increase

• Transnational actors are beginning to challenge the dominance of sovereign states

• More generally, interdependence erodes the idea of state autonomy

• These ideas have been criticised ny neo- realists as being fanciful

Baylis, Smith & Owens: The Globalization of World Politics 6e

The challenges confronting liberalism

• Liberalism is now in question in theory and in practice

• Crises in the multilateral institutions designed to provide governance over security, trade and finance, have demonstrated that cooperation is harder to achieve and sustain than liberalists had assumed

• American “benevolent hegemony” is in decline • The notion of global institutions that actually rule

the world appears a distant prospect

Baylis, Smith & Owens: The Globalization of World Politics 6e

The challenges confronting liberalism

• Hussein assumed that the West would not use force to defend Kuwait

• The invasion led to a series of UN resolutions calling for Iraq to withdraw

• This revived the idea of collective security (notions further bolstered by Bush administration remarks about a new world order)

• Sanctions were imposed, and a US-led coalition prepared to oust the Iraqi forces

• But what were the underlying motivations?