Identify and Assess the Core Elements of Liberal Thinking in International Politics

Résumé du document

At the end of World War I, the world was traumatized and will never be the same as it was before. Indeed, the 'Great War' was the first total war, the first large-scale slaughter. President Woodrow Wilson in his 14 points speech represents his hope for a change in international policy. In his speech, he outlines the core ideas of what will be called the idealist discipline of International Relations which included arm reduction, free trade, decolonization, democratization, and promotion of international institutions. It is in this context that International Relations emerged as a formal discipline in 1918 with the creation of the "Woodrow Wilson chair" in Aberystwyth. The essay question leads us to examine the Liberal theory in IR. We will thus have to question the theory of idealism, outlining its core ideas and questioning what the limits of such a theory are. Our reflection can be summed up by the following question: "Is idealism a utopian or naïve theory or is it merely progressive and reformist?

Extraits

[...] Since the 1970's and the emergence of neo liberalism, idealism has known a revival. Neo liberalism asks one core question: how can we best support and promote cooperation between states in an anarchic international system(7). Considering the fact that IS is anarchic, it is a less naïve theory. And these neo liberal thinkers are returning the idealistic argument against there opponents by saying that IR are more complex than the realist “statist” point of view which is very abstract and far from the “reality” Thus, we have seen that the liberal thought were very progressive and reformist and proposed a good analysis of how the international system should change by a domestication of international by the national. [...]

[...] Somehow it is an extension of the Hobbesian idea of nature of state to the international system. They also think that foreign policy needs to be done like any policy; that it should be opened up to public debate and scrutiny, not remain a secret world of 'sinister interest'. It led them to the reflection that we need to develop some capacity to mediate and organize the international system. Thus, in the liberal thinking of IR, the key to progress, to domestication of the IS is strong international institutions. [...]

[...] Besides, France and Britain were reluctant to use either economic sanctions or military force to support the League's decisions. Finally, with the failure of the LN, and the outbreak of WWII, Realism became the dominant perspective in IR after 1945 and highly influential in foreign policy circles. It led the IR to what is often referred as the first great debate in IR: Idealism versus Realism. Indeed, Realism appears as a clear response to idealism. Idealism has often been used by its detractors as a polemical or pejorative term in order to dismiss the idea. [...]

[...] They include the idea of free trade, of reduction in arms to the minimum level (no offensive military capacity, only defensive), of democratisation, of beginning the decolonisation (colonisation is a barrier to democracy so it goes against the idea of democratisation . ) And, one of the most important idea: the establishment of an international peace organisation. That is how in 1919 was founded the League of Nation. Isn't Liberalism too idealistic ? The Realist critic of Idealism But, isn't Liberalism too idealistic ? What were the concrete results of idealism confronted to the reality of IR ? [...]

[...] (6)Lucian M. Ashworth, “Where are the idealists in inter war International Relations?”, Review of International Studies, (2006). (7)Keohane and Nye, Power and Interdependence, (1977) Bibliography - Dunne, Kurki and Smith, International Relations Theories [Chapter - C.W. Kegley, Neoidealist Moment in International Studies, Realist Myths and the New international Realities', International Studies Quarterly (June) 1993, pp. 131-146. - Hans Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations, 2d ed. - Baylis, Smith, and Owens, The Globalization of World Politics [Ch. 5-6 'Realism' & ‘Liberalism']. [...]