Theories Of International Relations 2 Dersi 3. Ünite Özet

Introduction

One of the major theoretical debates in the IR discipline is between realism and liberalism. Liberalism has been the main opponent of realism.The liberal IR theory is basicly concentrated on the individual as the unit of analysis.This has emerged the idea of pluralism in actors of IR besides the nation-state.Another idea is the belief in the power of human mind and universal values of liberalism that brings global peace. This is why the theory is called idealist.

Liberalism’s critizes realism’s not being able to explain international cooperation and argues that the realist analyses are limited with narrow definitions of the national interest. Liberal thinkers claim that international cooperation as well as conflict spring from the anarchic nature of the international system. Another important feature of this theory is that it is not possible to separate politics and economy.

Liberal internationalism is also known as idealism. Idealist writers have argued that it is possible to change the world through the establishment of international organizations. Liberalism was one of the actors that shaped the postSecond World War (WWII) politics and the evolution of IR as a separate discipline. Neo(liberalism) still borrows many concepts and assumptions of (neo)realism in its attempts to explain today’s global politics.

Classical Liberalism

After the First World War international relations as a discipline was born. It was difficult for scholars who were trying to understand international politics through empirical methods. At that time realism and idealism were both at work. Liberal internationalism has carried the traces of classical liberalism and post-war idealism together. Neoliberalism has moved closer to the basic assumptions of neorealism since the 1970s.

The basic arguments were shaped in the 19th century. Classical liberalism defends the idea of minimal states which means that every issue area except military, law enforcement and other non-excludable goods should be dealt with by citizens.

There are six key concepts of classical liberal philosophy commonly mentioned by the liberal writers:

• individualism
• freedom
• natural law
• spontaneous order
• rule of law
• limited state

The different classifications of classical liberalism is based on different interpretations of these six core elements.

In classical liberalism, the individual is the main object of study (unit of analysis), not groups, societies or nations. Liberal writers do not idealize the human, but they trust human rationality, strength and flexibility of the human mind. The imperfection of human being and his/her individual errors can be corrected in the social realm.

Classical liberalism gives great importance to freedom where individuals can act freely without violating the rights of others.

This principle of freedom of the individual is based on “negative freedom” (freedom from arbitrary authority) and includes:

• freedom of conscience
• free press
• free speech
• equality under the law
• the right to hold and exchange property

Freedom is also based on rights necessary to protect and promote the circumstances (capacity and opportunities) for freedom, known as “positive freedoms” such as:

• equality of opportunity in education
• right to health care services
• right to employment

A third kind of liberal rights is democratic participation or representation. The liberal tradition in time has split in two:

• laissez faire (conservative) liberalism
• social welfare (democracy) liberalism which flow together in four basic institutitons:

1. juridical equality of citizens
2. representative democracy
3. recognition of rights of private property
4. and limited control of state on economy

For liberal thinkers a system where individuals could choose how to integrate with the division of labor was important. However, both liberty and protection of the individual depended on laws enforced by the state. This is known as the rule of law.

The liberals accept state as a major actor in the international arena. According to classical liberals, the sovereign (state) has three duties;

• protection of its people from invasion of other states
• protection of each individual in society from oppression of other member(s) including protection of property
• rovision of public services and maintenance of the societal institutions important for both individual freedom and peaceful coexistence

So it is obvious that contrary to realism state is not a unitary, solitary actor to decide and act independent of the public.

In the 18th and 19th centuries classical liberalism became a dominant ideology in the 18th and 19th centuries in Great Britain and the United States. It was the golden age of liberalism that remained unchallenged until the 20th century.

Classical Liberal Theory of IR

Classical liberalism has focused on the human nature and actions in explaining IR. Human nature’s flexibility and also conflict are recognized as a natural part of human life.

Concerning patriotism in human nature, classical liberals see nationalism as a threat whenever it starts to limit the individual freedom and is shaped towards imperialism.

The Grotian tradition defends the idea that states in international anarchy are limited by rules of law and by the interest in preserving the international society and its institutions.

According to the liberal tradition, state is seen as the defender of classical human rights in both domestic and international spheres which corresponds with the Grotian position and later has evolved to the English School.

According to classical liberalism, international law must be restricted to the international protection of individual rights. The establishment of the international governmental organizations since the nineteenth century has been based on this. However, classical liberals were against the extension of the tasks of the League of Nations and the way the United Nations was organized.

Liberal Internationalism

Liberal internationalism reached its peak between the World Wars and was based on the principles of enlightenment and classical liberal theory of IR. It was mostly recognized with Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points.

Liberal internationalists believe that it is possible to overcome international anarchy through international cooperation and collaboration based on international law.

After the term interdependence (mutual dependence) entered the liberal terminology ,the term transnationalism followed, which further supported liberalism’s pluralistic nature concerning international actors. The rise of the multinational corporations (MNCs) in world politics increased the interest towards international political economy .The transgovernmental coalitions of the MNCs began to have a leading role in economics and were closely related with politics . The realist assumption which accepted states as unitary actors was challenged by transgovernmental relations. Liberalism somehow supplements realism by exploring the ways in which domestic and international factors interact to shape and change interests.

Beginning in 1970s, the liberal theory changed into a more realist version compared with both classical liberalism and liberal internationalism. After 1970, international organizations still mattered and were accepted as independent variables creating influence on states. The post-WWII development of the liberal tradition in IR theory was a change from classical liberalism towards regional integration namely neofunctionalism followed by institutionalism.

Neoliberal Institutionalism

The major objective in liberalism is to provide the conditions useful to international collaboration or even peace. Neoliberal institutionalists study calculations of interests.Cooperation means that all participicants take advantage of its benefits. This is called absolute gains compared to the relative gains perspective of the realist assumption as regards nature of cooperation.

Liberal tradition has four main assumptions:

1. pluralist image of world politics where states, non-state and transnational entities are important actors
2. economic interdependence or interconnectedness where network of states, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, multinational corporations, groups and individuals turn into a global civil society soothing states
3. an extensive agenda composed of all issue areas not limited with military and security issues but involving economic, social and environmental ones
4. individual level of analysis, opposed to a topdown analysis of structural realism and analysis of decision-making processes with an eye to individual, social, cultural differences.

Another characteristic of the liberal tradition is that liberals do not make a difference between international and domestic politics. The same is true for political processes in the two spheres. Institutionalists are less idealistic than internationalists and put more emphasis on cooperation through regimes and institutions

The liberal views of the 1980s developed under the circumstances of the dissolution of the Soviet regime as Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms in the SU were focused on political openness and economic reform. In the early 1990s there was a new hope for humanity through neoliberalism’s emphasis on human rights, democratization and global governance . However, it was difficult to make medium or long term commitments to international institutions, because there was no domestic political consensus on concepts in emerging political issues such as intervention.

According to Andrew Moravcsik, there are three variants of neoliberal theory:

1. Ideational liberalism discusses the effects of the conflict and compatibility of collective social values and identities concerning public goods provision on state behavior.
2. Commercial liberalism is about the effects of gains and losses of the people in transactional economics on the state behavior.
3. Republican liberalism is about the effects of the variants of democratic representation and rentseeking on state behavior.

Moravcsik explained the core assumptions of the liberal theory as follows;

1. The fundamental actors are individuals who act rationally and have a tendency to collective action for their interests.
2. States represent some domestic groups, whose interests shape state preferences.
3. The interdependent state preferences shape state behavior.

Structural theories such as neorealism do not offer a theory of preferences. Realism is also criticized to be unable to explain globalization as it ignores the transnational societal interaction among agents. Although liberalism is criticized to be a domestic and unit-level theory indifferent to international sphere, it is a general theory that applies its core assumptions to international politics .

The need to solve the following has lead to global governance:

• global problems
• changing nature of international actors
• limitations of international measures to govern transnational issues

The post Cold War international arena was the reason to make all IR theories to revise their assumptions. This was seen as the triumph of liberalism because it is a liberal world order in which globalization has spread with its notions of democracy, capitalism and multilateralism to all parts of the world.

The liberal thesis claims that free trade and democracy decrease the likelihood of war. To prove its validity scholars like Doyle and Russett did some research based on data about incidents of military disputes during the Cold War. The conclusion was that democracy and trade reduce the likelihood of military conflict. This was the case after the WWII. With this discussion they emphasize that the classical liberals were right in their basic assumptions about liberty and prosperity.

Following the liberal tradition, democratic peace theory is based on

1. faith in human rationality
2. capability of maintaining peace
3. ability to overcome anarchy and power politics and
4. peace enhancing effects of trade

Kant wrote about three definitive articles to be accepted by all nations for everlasting peace:

1. republican constitutions
2. international law and organization (mutual nonaggression pact)
3. cosmopolitan law (coming from economic interdepence)

According to liberal economic theory, the economic interdependence is the bond of cosmopolitan ties.

A major point critized is the definition of democracy. Because there is no consensus on the key concept “democracy” itself, it is problematic to test the hypotheses of the democratic-peace theory.

Conclusion

Stephen Waltz argues there is no single theory or approach that can help IR scholars, practitioners or students to explain the complexity of conflict and cooperation in world politics. Hence, competition between theories such as the one between realism and liberalism helps scholars compare the strengths and weaknesses of different theories and make it possible to revise them. This is also why today’s neoliberalism is closer to neorealism in many respects.