The Problem of Cooperation and Peace:

Liberalism

Dimitrios Stroikos
 THIS WEEK

 Main themes and tensions in liberal IR

theory
 Key concepts and assumptions
 Liberalism
 Institutional Liberalism (Neoliberalism)

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 Liberalism:
 Conflict is a distortion of the natural state of affairs
 Peace can be achieved by the spread of
interdependence and democratic values

 Realism
 Conflict results from human nature
 It can be mitigated by the balance of power

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 Origins of the liberal theory of IR

 18th century European Enlightenment

 Faith in knowledge, science and progress

 The capacity of human reason to overcome difficulties

 Liberalism as a political and economic theory

 Democracy and limited government
 Liberty; rights; equality before the law
 Free trade
 Democratic peace

 Immanuel Kant’s ‘Perpetual Peace’

(1795)
 Connection between regime and
international behaviour

 Pacification between liberal republics

 Democratic caution
 Predictability
 Appreciation of other republic’s
rights
 Political economy

 David Ricardo: free trade binds people

 Adam Smith: mercantilism imposes unnatural barriers and
leads to conflict
 Free movement is essential to peace
 Trade promotes mutual recognition, trust, interdependence
 Joseph Schumpeter: only war profiteers and military
aristocrats gain from wars

 Key idea: free trade is a force for peace

 Liberal International Thought
on Trade and Peace
 John Stuart Mill
 ‘Commerce is what war once was,
the principal source of
[international] contact’, which is
‘one of the primary sources of
progress’.
 Mill influenced many of his readers,
as a prominent liberal thinker of the
19th century.

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Liberal International Thought
on Trade and Peace
 Richard Cobden
 The most important populariser of the
trade-leads-to-peace thesis
 He rejected the balance of power,
most wars, and intervention in the
affairs of states.
 ‘Commerce was the great panacea’
and free markets that increase the
harmony of of state interests.
 But he seriously misrepresented
Smith’s ideas on power, trade, and
war.

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 20th century liberalism
 Inter-war idealism

 Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points (January 1918)

 ‘the day of conquest and aggrandizement
has gone by’
 harmony of interests between nations
 openness of agreements
 freedom of circulation
 removal of economic barriers
 reduction of armaments
 self-determination
 a ‘general association of nations’

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 The ‘domestic analogy’

 Domestic politics matters: an ‘inside-out’ vision

 The international sphere can be ‘domesticated’:

1. Built along the same principles of domestic spheres

 Freedom, equality, democracy and openness

2. War can be overcome

 Democracy and free trade
 Supra-national organizations
 Main ideas of liberalism

 International affairs: moral learning and progress

 War is not natural or inevitable

 Peace is the normal state of affairs

 Preference for democracy and free trade

 To curb the elites’ propensity for violence
 To break down artificial barriers

 The international realm can be ‘domesticated’

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 Liberalism and International Relations

‘Kantian constraints’
 Democracy
 International Trade (economic
interdependence)
 International Organisations
 Liberalism and International Relations

• Emergence of liberal internationalism

• Functionalism: Cooperation will only work if it is
focused on functions that would be performed
more effectively in a post-national setting
• Norman Angell ‘The Great Illusion’ 1909
• Argument: Economic costs of war are so great
that a European war is unlikely to begin
• War is economically and socially irrational
• EH Carr’s critique of liberal internationalism
• Realism as the dominant paradigm
 Neoliberal Institutionalism

 Emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, in response

to neo-realism
 Classic texts:
 Keohane, Robert, and Joseph S. Nye. Power and
interdependence: World politics in transition,
1977.
 Krasner, S. D. (Ed.), International regimes, 1983
 Alex Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation,
1984
 John Ruggie, Multilateralism Matters, 1993
 Problem

 Given anarchy…how cooperation is possible

between states?
 Examples:
 The United Nations
 The European Union
 International Trade Regimes
 International Law
 Why some multi-national institutions work?
 Neoliberal Assumptions

Accepts a number of neorealist assumptions:

 Anarchy
 Primacy of states as the main actors
 State behaviour is shaped by power and self-
interest
 Primacy of Great Powers
 But also ‘liberal’ assumptions
 Complex interdependence
 Peace and Cooperation
 Role of international Organisations
 Rational choice theory and
International Relations
 Rational choice theory: the maximisation of
utility by actors (states) is the ultimate aim of
foreign policy decision makers.
 How does it work?: a state first identifies and
prioritises foreign policy goals; it then
indentifies and selects from the means
available to it, which fulfil its aims with the
least cost (cost-benefit analysis).
 Keohane and Nye: Complex Inter-
dependence (Transnationalism)
 It allows the state to retain a measure of agency
in assessing and mobilising state and sub-state
actors.
 The increasing importance of international
institutions is manifested in the fact that
international institutions are seen as the prime
domain for actions.
 Keohane and Nye highlight the increasing
relevance of a variety of networks, actors and
interests.
 In doing so, they anticipate key features of the
globalisation literature.
 International institutions

 High interdependence means shared interests

 Potential for mutual gains
 However: the international realm remains anarchic

 Distrust leads to the creation of institutions (treaties,

organizations, sets of rules and procedures)
 Raising the cost of cheating
 Lowering transaction costs
 Regularity, predictability and increased information
 Enhancing trust, continuity and stability

 Institutions reduce obstacles to cooperation

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 The ‘neo-neo’ debate

1. What influences state action in an anarchic system?

 Neo-realism: structure and distribution of power
 Neo-liberalism: structure is important, but institutions can play
important role

2. How likely is cooperation in anarchy?

 Neo-realism: states are always measuring their power in
relation to others
 Neo-liberalism: states do not always need to worry about the
power of others

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 The ‘neo-neo’ debate

3. How do states conceive their interests?

 Neo-realism: states seek relative gains, i.e. they seek to
gain advantage in relation to others
 Neo-liberalism: in some cases states are willing to
maximize their absolute gains, regardless of the gains of
others

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 ‘Neo-neo’ debate: a family feud?

• Shared assumptions:
• Statist and rationalist theories
• Establishing the most effective way to realize state
interests, given structural constraints

• States are pre-social: their identities and interests are

given prior to interaction
• They don’t consider how interests are formed and
how they may change
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 Regime theory (International Regimes)

o "sets of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules,

and decision-making procedures around which actors'
expectations converge in a given area of international
relations" (Krasner 1983)
o regimes vary by “given area” or “issue-area”: regimes
for trade, finance, economic development, human
rights, nuclear proliferation, etc
o there may or may not be formal international
organizations (IOs) for a given regime (e.g., WTO for
trade, but no central IO for human rights)
The international regime of climare
change
The Global Nuclear non-proliferation
regime
The Outer Space Regime
Liberalism and Global Order in
Practice
 Liberalism and Global Order in
Practice
 A set of principles and practices: open markets,
international institutions, cooperative security,
democratic community, progressive change,
collective problem solving, rule of law.
 The key role of the United States in the
ascendancy of liberal order.
 The return of authoritarian (capitalist) Great
Powers – a threat to liberal order?
 Liberalism and Global Order in
Practice
• According to Ikenberry, liberal ideas, norms
and practices are so entrenched in
contemporary international society that they
will survive, despite the rise of authoritarian
Great Powers
• Put differently, liberal order is the foundation
of international society today, not the
reflection of a balance of power.
Key texts

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Key texts

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 Summary: Realism and Liberalism

Liberalism Realism
Primary
To explain why war happens; to prevent it
concern
Domesticate the Guidelines for survival and
Response
international realm effective action
Democracy and trade
Prudent action
Mechanisms Rule of law
Balance of power
Institutions
Starting Nature of domestic Laws that govern state
point regime action
Actors States, IOs, TNCs, etc. States
Human Moral learning Unchanging
nature Belief in rationality Selfish and egoistic
Power politics
Harmony of interests
Nature of IR Anarchy
Progress is possible
Limited cooperation
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 Summary: Neo-realism and Neo-
liberalism
 Neo-realism as an outgrowth of realism
 A ‘scientific’ approach
 From the character of the state to the condition of anarchy
 Focus on political structures

 Neo-liberalism as a response to neo-realism

 Accepts some of the neo-realist assumptions
 More optimistic as to the prospects of cooperation
 Focus on structure but also on institutions

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