Idealism/Liberalism

Idealism/Liberalism:
• Primary competitor to Realism
• Has intellectual roots in enlightenment optimism
• Can be traced back to the teachings of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam.
• Seen in the Humanist ideas of the Renaissance
• Really explored during the Age of Enlightenment,
• Key thinkers: Hugo Grotius, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, Woodrow Wilson, Bruce
Russett, Joseph Nye
• Immanuel Kant argued that doing good was an end unto itself rather than a means to
some other end
• Belief in free trade: increased material prosperity through free trade and technology
• Belief in justice like the abolition of slave trade, end of apartheid, etc…
• Belief in peace like the end of the Cold War
• Belief in the absolute gains from cooperation
 Idealism/Liberalism:
• Idealists tend to be more interested in how the world ought to be rather then
how it actually is
• They consider the reality of the moment to not be the only possible reality.
• Hope to minimize conflict and maximize cooperation among nations
• Focus attention on legal-formal aspects of international relations like
international laws governing war and the seas and international organizations
like the United Nations
• Focus on moral concerns and human rights like the Universal Declaration of
Human Right
• A prime goal of all politics is the improvement of the human condition.
 Idealism/Liberalism:
• Views international system less as anarchy, more as society of
interdependent states
• Not only IGOs, but also norms and international law can shape
states’ behavior
• Values/morality important—not just states’ interests
• Emphasis not only on state-to-state relations, but on
conditions within other countries (e.g., poverty, human rights,
disease, environment)
• Envisions greater role for non-state actors like NGOs
 Idealism/Liberalism:
• Belief in Universal Ethics: All humans should abide by common standards such
as natural laws. There is a universal ethic common to all people. There is no
special aspect of culture that makes morality different from country to country.
• Example: The Ten Commandments as the basis for the three mono-theistic religions
• Peace is better than war: War is seen as immoral by idealists and should only
be used as a last resort for a just cause.
• Example: St. Thomas Aquinas
• War is irrational: War is caused by a breakdown of rationality and based upon
baser instincts. Most people would not participate in war if they were fully
informed and had free choice Conflicts can be avoided if states sought to better
understand each other.
 Idealism/Liberalism:
• Harmony of Interests: Idealists believe it is possible for humans to live
together in harmony if the proper measures are taken. The human race
could live together in peace if only we would come to believe that was
and violence are not the answers. War and violence are learned
behaviors.
• Example: Full implementation of democracy and capitalism could provide a
harmony of interests: wealth and the good life. While was disrupts economies,
are destructive, and not necessarily profitable to most people in the world.
 Idealism/Liberalism:
• People are Good: Optimistic about human nature. In
the proper setting, man would enjoy peace and be free
from conflict.
• The Power of Public Opinion: People that are active can
take charge of politics. Political leaders can manipulate
common people to fight in war, but an active democratic
movement of common people can reverse this
manipulation.
 Idealism/Liberalism
• More optimistic about achieving peace and cooperation among states
• Commercial Liberalism: trade leads to peace/cooperation
• Realist counterpoint: interdependence is rarely equal—usually
one country is more dependent on the other, which creates
leverage
• Democratic Liberalism: democracy leads to peace/cooperation
• Realist counterpoint: domestic structure less important than
international systemic incentives
• Institutional Liberalism: institutions promote peace/cooperation
• Realist counterpoint: IGOs simply reflect the balance of power
among states and don’t have an independent impact
Liberalism Case Study
 Liberalism Case Study: Hugo Grotius
• Hugo Grotius (1583-1645)
• Considered to the father or founder of international law
• Hugo Grotius (Law of War and Peace, 1625) and Samuel
Pufendorf (Law of Nature and of Nation, 1672)
• Both said that sovereign states should work together for
the common good
• A community of nations in the absence of a higher
authority must subordinate self interests to natural
reason and justice
• They recommended freedom of the seas, immunity of
ambassadors
 Liberalism Case Study: Hugo Grotius
• Grotius sought to achieve his practical objective to minimize bloodshed in wars by
constructing a general theory of law (jurisprudentia) that would restrain and
regulate war between various independent powers, including states.
• He made this daring argument because he believed that natural law—the most
important tool to restrain and regulate wars in Europe—must be independent of
religion, applying to all people regardless of their religious beliefs.
• He realized, however, that the goal of restraining and regulating war could not be
achieved by secular law alone.
• He thus reintroduced various elements of Christianity into his jurisprudentia.
Grotius has often been quoted to “secularize” law or natural law, but the so-
called secularization of law was hypothetical rather than categorical.
 Liberalism Case Study: Hugo Grotius
• Grotius believed that only wars with just causes should be allowed.
Because there is no judge for judicial settlement between nations, war
as a means to solve conflicts must be tolerated.
• However, causes of war should be limited to causes for litigation. For
example, the defense and restitution of things are just causes of war
(see also just war).
• He also developed a theory of crime and punishment, which he used to
characterize certain wars as just punishment for crimes committed by
independent powers, including states.
 Grotius’ Quote
In one famous passage of De Jure Belli ac Pacis, Grotius
wrote that,

Fully convinced…that there is a common law among

nations, which is valid alike for war and in war, I have had
many and weighty reasons for undertaking to write upon
this subject. Throughout the Christian world I observed a
lack of restraint in relation to war, such as even barbarous
nations should be ashamed of. (Prolegomena, 28.)
 Grotius Quote

• He contends that "God wills that should we protect

ourselves, retain our hold on the necessities of life,
obtain that which is our due, punish transgressors,
and at the same time defend the state ...Therefore,
some wars are just.” Wars may be justly undertaken
in response either to “wrongs not yet committed,
or to wrongs already done.”