LIBERALISM IN

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Intro to International Relations
 What is Liberalism
• Liberalism (sometimes called ‘utopianism’) is an
approach to international politics that stresses the
importance of moral values and ideals, rather than
power and the pursuit of the national interest, as a
guide to foreign policy-making.
• Although some realists condemned it as a form of
idealism in the late 1930s and just after the Second
World War, liberal internationalism became the focus
of renewed attention at the end of the twentieth
century.
 Liberal Views
• The theoretical point of departure for liberalism is the
individual. Individuals plus various collectivities of
individuals are the focus of analysis; first and foremost
states, but also corporations, organizations, and
associations of all kinds.
• Liberals maintain that not only conflict but also
cooperation can shape international affairs. Liberals are
basically optimistic: when humans employ their reason
they can arrive at mutually beneficial cooperation.
• Liberal optimism is closely connected with the rise of the
modern state. Modernization means progress in most
areas of human life, including international relations.
 Liberal Internationalism
• Liberal internationalism is essentially a project to
transform international relations so that they
conform to models of peace, freedom, and
prosperity allegedly enjoyed within constitutional
liberal democracies.
• Complex interdependence reflects the extent to
which peoples and governments in the modern
world are affected by what happens elsewhere, and
particularly by the actions of their counterparts in
other countries.
Strands of Liberal Internationalism
• Commercial liberalism promotes the idea of free trade and
commerce across state borders on the assumption that
economic interdependence among states will reduce
incentives to use force and raise the cost of doing so.
• Republican liberalism endorses the spread of democracy
among states so that governments will be accountable to
their citizens and find it difficult to pursue policies that
promote the sectional interests of economic and military
elites.
• Regulatory or institutional liberalism believes that it is
possible to promote the rule of law and develop international
institutions and practices that moderate the security dilemma
among states.