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IR Theories - Liberalism
IR Theories - Liberalism
Theories in IR:
Liberalism
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
2020-1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZbDMUaqwE8
Liberalism
• Focuses on creating a fair and peaceful international order.
• After WW2 as well as after the end of the Cold War, liberal sentiments appeared to
be on the rise in international politics.
Francis Fukuyama:
• American political scientist and political economist.
• "The End of History and the Last Man (1992)": the worldwide spread of liberal
democracies and free market capitalism of the West and its lifestyle may signal the end
point of humanity's sociocultural evolution and become the final form of human government.
Liberalism
• Classical liberalism has its origin in the Enlightenment and in theories of thinkers such as
Adam Smith, Emmanuel Kant or John Locke.
• In this theory, rationality and freedom are inherent in human nature. And despite the
fact that the individual always seeks his own interests, through the correct regulation of
institutions, cooperation is possible.
Classical Liberalism
John Locke (1632–1704, UK):
• Lived during the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
• Government is based on a social contract between rulers and their subjects. Subjects
have the right and duty to rebel against rulers when the latter violate their rights.
• All humans have natural rights to life, liberty, and property.
• Political order must be based on a ruler’s respect for the rights of his or her people
rather than being something that a ruler imposes unilaterally.
• Political justice is a precondition for any form of lasting political order.
• Popularized the idea of natural rights – today referred to as human rights (one of the
main interests of modern IR).
Fundaments of Liberalism
1)Equal rights
All citizens are equal and possess certain basic rights.
4) Free Market
The free market is the most effective system of economic
exchange.
Liberalism and International Relations
The Global Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime The International Regime for Environmental Protection
Liberalism and International Relations
Democratic peace theory:
• Liberal democratic states do not tend to go to war with
other liberal democracies (shared ideology and value
system). Spreading the values of liberal democracy leads to
promoting peace.
• Disputes should be solved by diplomatic negotiations.
• Emmanuel Kant in his book ¨Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical
Sketch¨, stated that the search for justice would
ultimately lead to the achievement of peace.
1. Cooperation:
• Places a priority on tolerance and non-
intervention with simultaneous need for
authoritative international and global
institutions that modify significantly the powers
traditionally attributed to the sovereign state.
The World Government might 1. Realist argument: ideas of world government is utopian
be a definitive solution to thinking, given the egoistic human nature, and the claim
the universal human of sovereign countries to the supreme authority.
problems such as war and
the development of weapons 2. Homogeneity argument: the institution of the world
of mass destruction, global government would destroy the rich social pluralism and
poverty and inequality, and ideological variety of the world, that animates human life
environmental degradation. and progress.
Putin claims that the vast majority of people in the world oppose multiculturalism,
immigration, and rights for people who are LBGT.
https://www.ft.com/video/a49cfa25-610e-438c-b11d-5dac19619e08
Anarchy
Realism Liberalism
International Interdependence
anarchic system (anarchy of a
(security dilemma) positive sum)
Acummulation
Cooperation
of power
Own Institutions
and regimes
with a long-
lasting
Alliances
vocation
(tactical)
Realists and Liberalists - debate
Baylis, J., & Smith, S. (2014). The globalization of world politics: An introduction to
international relations. Oxford University Press.
Doyle, M. ‘Liberalism and world politics’ (1986), The American Political Science Review
Mingst, K. A., & Arreguín-Toft, I. (2014). Essentials of international relations. Sixth edition.
W.W.: Norton & Company.