Liberalism

Question 1

What three principles is liberalism revolved around?

Answer 1

• Rejection of power politics as the only possible outcome out of international relations - questions the security and warfare principles of realism.
• Implements IGO and NGO actors for shaping state preferences and policy choices.
• Accentuates mutual benefits and international cooperations - encourages to place collective goals above self-interest.

Question 2

Liberalisms and international organisations

Answer 2

• Believes that IGOs are key to state cooperation, and a world of complex interdependence (inc. economic and cultural exchanges).
• Provides states opportunities to reduce conflict = promotes democracy, multiculturalism and acceptance.
• Made up of three components

Question 3

What three components do liberals believe interdependence is made up of?

Answer 3

1) States act in various ways - through economic, financial and cultural means. Security means isn’t the primary goal in interactions and military isn’t used often.

2) International diplomacy is an effective way to get states to interact with e/o and support non-violent interactions.

3) With proper institutions and diplomacy, liberals believe states can cooperate to maximise prosperity and minimise conflict.

Question 4

What is the Democratic Peace Theory?

Answer 4

Democracies hesitate to engage in armed conflict with other identified democracies.

Question 5

Among proponents of DPT, factors held as motivating peace are?

Answer 5

• Democratic leaders are forced to accept culpability for war losses to a voting public (Blair in Iraq).
• Politically accountable states are inclined to establish diplomatic institutions for resolving international disputes.
• Democracies are not inclined to view states with adjacent policy and governing doctrines as hostile (NATO joining against Russia).
• Democracies tend to possess greater public welfare than other states, and therefore eschew war to preserve infrastructures and resources.

Question 6

Commercial liberalism (interdependence)

Answer 6

• States promoting free trade and economic interdependence is the ‘road to peace’, advocated by global financial institutes and multinational companies.
• “When goods don’t cross borders, armies will,” = economist Frederic Bastiat

Question 7

Examples of current issues regarding commercial liberalism

Answer 7

+ Brexit - damaging and creates friction regarding trade.
+ Russia’s invasion of Ukraine opposes this.
+ Treatment of Northern Ireland conflicts this - sacrificed the borders in the Brexit deal.

Question 8

Institutional liberalism

Answer 8

• A modern theory that claims international institutions and organisations (UN, NATO and EU) can increase and aid cooperation between states.
• Compared to idealism - emerged after WW1 and the League of Nations formed.
• Like realism, states act rationally in an anarchic international system where hierarchy cannot be enforced, giving states a voice to resolve conflicts peacefully than in war (issue - not many benefit, except USA post-WW1 and WW2).

Question 9

Examples regarding institutional liberalism

Answer 9

• EU - an international organisation - has a slight authority over the state (must follow EU Law).
• Russia excluded from NATO expansion created tension, causing Putin to invade Ukraine (non-NATO state).

Question 10

International Law

Answer 10

• Set of rules generally accepted as binding in relations between states and between nations - serves as the framework for the practice of stable and organised international relations.
• Differs from state-based legal systems as it’s primarily applicable to countries than private citizens.
• National Law may become IL when treaties delegate national jurisdiction to supranational tribunals (ECHR or International Criminal Courts) and treaties (Geneva convention) may require national law to conform to respective parts.

Question 11

Evaluation of International Law

Answer 11

• Consent-based governance = members are not obligated to abide, unless they’ve explicitly consented to a particular course of conduct (state sovereignty).
• Anarchic international system = there is no authority above states and states can only enforce IL by military action (realism) - causes conflict.
• However, other aspects of IL aren’t consent based - still obligatory upon state/non-state actors like customary international law and peremptory norms.