Liberalism: Historical Development §

17th Century First Liberalism Concept §

• Hugo Grotis (1583-1645) asserted that All international relations are subject to
  • The law of nations: war is not the right of states
  • The law of nature: states are rational and law-biding

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18th Century The Enlightenment & Democratic Peace Theory §

• Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
• The Enlightenment contributed to liberalism by that individuals
  • are rational human beings
  • able to improve their life by creating a just society
• Kant focused on the relationship between democracy and peace for the possibility of ‘perpetual peace’ among democratic nations (Democratic Peace Theory)

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19th Century Democratic Deterrent for War §

• The Enlightenment + Scientific Modernization and Industrial Revolution + Democracy & Free Trade
• Adam Smith and Jeremy Bentham: asserted, free trade raise interdependence
  • Raised the cost of war
  • Reward cooperation and competitions with peace, prosperity, and justice
• This is the basis for Economic Liberalism

Core of 20th Century Liberalism §

• The core of 20th century Liberalism was
  • The Versailles Treaty: Woodrow Wilson: to prevent war:
    • creating collective security: Democratic Peace Theory
    • self determination of people: Wilson’s intent to spread democracy, autonomous states, and abolish colonies ¹
    • eliminating power politics
  • The Covenant of the League of Nations: asserted the importance of international organizations for collective problem solving and reduce chance of war ^{2 1}

Influence of Liberalism ¹ §

• Woodrow Wilson’s main mission was to spread liberalism to Europe and the Globe
• 14 Points Programme to ‘make the world safe with democracy
• lead to the creation of the League of nations

Woodrow Wilson’s 2 Main Ideas (28th US president) §

• Promotion of Democracy and self-determination: no colonies ⇒ all autonomous democratic states.
  • Democratic States don’t go to war with one another
• Creation of International Organization: intelligently designed with rules and laws to reduce the chance of war. “a forest with caged beasts”
  • Act as middle ground to settle disputes peacefully

Normal Angell (Author of the Great Illusion) §

• Illusion: war gives profit to winners
• Reality: war disrupts commerce and is very expensive to operate
• Modernization and Economic Interdependence: The more developed countries are the less war is useful to their growth.
• 💡 Woodrow Wilson + Normal Angell ⇒ International Organization to benefit all
  • Humans are rational, using reason to create a good IO that benefits everyone
  • Open Diplomacy: put pressure on states, hand tying

The Fall of ‘Utopian Liberalism’ ³ §

• Liberalism was seen as wishful thinking when a series of opposing events happened in the 1920s
  • Nazi-Germany, Italy, and Europe dictatorships ³
  • Growth of Authoritarianism in Central and Eastern Europe ³
  • Lessen importance of democracy and powerful democracies had colonies abroad ³
  • Failure/dysfunctional of League of Nations : withdrawal of Italy, Japan, Germany’s membership
  • Great Depression ³
    • National Interests First: Protectionism

References §

Footnotes §

1. Chapter 2 Theories of IR ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Chapter 2 The Theoretical Foundation of Global Governance (Main Reference) ↩

3. Jackson(2013)IntroductionInternationalRelationsa Chapter 4 Liberalism ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵