Introduction

This chapter introduces students to a political theory that has held enormous influence in the study of international relations since the discipline's inception. Understanding liberalism requires acquaintance with the historical context in which the political arguments for freedom and toleration were first enunciated. After providing a brief survey of some key liberal tenets and the manifestation of these tenets in international institutions and foreign and trade policies, the chapter considers the way that contemporary liberal theories of international relations have developed along empirical and normative trajectories.

The historical–political context

Liberalism is often seen as the characteristic political philosophy of the modern West. Its central principles – freedom, (human) rights, reason, progress, toleration – and the norms of constitutionalism and democracy, are deeply embedded in Western political culture. Nonetheless, liberal theories of international relations were until recently disdained as utopian by international relations scholars no less than by diplomats. The two world wars and the Cold War seemed to bear out the realist thesis that the international milieu was inevitably subject to the harsh imperatives of power politics.

Since the end of the Cold War, however, the world looks quite different. There is no hostile power threatening the liberal democracies; indeed, major war has come to seem unthinkable, and the international economy is organised in accordance with the norms of the liberal market. Liberal internationalism has gained a new relevance.