Baylis, Smith & Owens: The Globalization of World Politics 5e

Chapter 6

Liberalism

Introduction to Liberalism

• Goes back at least to John Locke (late 17th cent) • Both a theory of government within states, and of

good governance between states/peoples worldwide

• Seeks to project values of order, liberty, justice and toleration into IR

• Institutions (domestic & international) needed to protect and nurture these values

• High-water mark: the inter-war period

(warfare as unnecessary, outmoded way of settling disputes)

Introduction (cont.)

• Variations in values and institutions -->

heated debates within liberalism– Causes of war– Kinds of institutions required

• Positive vs. Negative conception– Positive: advocate interventionist foreign policies &

stronger international institutions– Negative: prioritizes toleration and non-

intervention

Core Ideas in Liberal IR: early liberal thought

• Natural order corrupted by undemocratic state leaders and out-dated policies (e.g. balance of power)

• Enlightenment liberals: latent cosmopolitan morality possible through

– Reason– Creation of constitutional states– Unfettered movement of people and goods

Core Ideas in Liberal IR

• International organization to facilitate peaceful change, disarmament, arbitration, and (where necessary) enforcement– The League of Nations (1920): collective

security system, failed to prevent descent into World War I

– UN (June 1945): fifty states sign Charter

• Membership was near universal• Great power control over enforcement

Core Ideas in Liberal IR

– Post-1945 increase in international institutions catalyzed integration theory in Europe and pluralism in US

– Early 1970s: pluralism as significant challenge to realism

• new actors (transnational corporations, NGO’s)• new patterns of interaction (interdependence,

integration)

Core Ideas in Liberal IR

• Dominant strands of liberal IR today

– Democratic peace liberalism– Neo-liberalism

• Neo-liberalism: more sophisticated theoretical challenge to contemporary realism

– Explains durability of institutions despite changes in context

– Institutions shape state preferences and lock them into cooperative arrangements

Case Study

The 1990-1 Gulf War and collective security