liberal internationalism

liberal internationalism, cluster of ideas derived from the belief that international progress is possible, where progress is defined as movement toward increasing levels of harmonious cooperation between political communities.

Liberal internationalist theories address how best to organize and reform the international system. In general, liberal internationalists regard violence as the policy of last resort, advocate diplomacy and multilateralism as the most-appropriate strategies for states to pursue, and tend to champion supranational political structures (such as the European Union) and international organizations (especially the United Nations).

Liberal internationalism is typically contrasted with realism, and during the final decades of the 20th century the academic field of international relations came to be characterized as a clash between variants of those two traditions. Realists accuse internationalists of being naive and even dangerously utopian, and internationalists accuse realists of being overly fatalistic.

Discover how ordinary objects work, and expand your understanding of the familiar.

SIGN UP

" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">

Thank you for signing up!"

Back to homepage

By clicking "Sign Up", you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Liberal internationalists have stressed a variety of agents of and strategies for reform. For some, transformation will come about mainly through a shift in international morality. For others, it requires the construction of international institutions. Most current internationalists focus principally on the role of institutions.

Origins and evolution

Although it can trace its history to 18th-century precursors, liberal internationalism emerged as a powerful ideology during the 19th century, primarily (though not exclusively) in Britain. Among its main proponents were politicians, including John Bright and Richard Cobden, and philosophers, including John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer. Critical of the violence and hypocrisy of the international system, those proponents proposed a variety of ways to transform the system. They started by challenging what they identified as the root of the problem: the interests and actions of the ruling aristocracies. The transition from mercantilism to free trade and the domestic move toward democracy presented an opportunity to overthrow that feudal legacy. Liberal internationalism has always been conjoined with a domestic reform agenda.

The relationship between liberal internationalism and imperialism is complex. Some internationalists (including Mill) supported the idea that enlightenment could be exported to “backward” countries. However, many of the most-prominent liberal internationalists (including Spencer) were ardent critics of imperialism. Today, a common criticism of liberal internationalism is that it is a veiled form of Western imperialism.

Internationalists were split between those who believed that reform would come about mainly or solely through a shift in norms (international morality) and those who thought that the only feasible route was through significant institutional construction at the international level. The former (including Cobden) focused on transforming the values of society, and in particular they promoted democracy. The latter proposed the creation of a variety of institutional structures, including regional and global federations, and transnational organizations, including international arbitration bodies.

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

SUBSCRIBE

World War I dashed the hopes of many internationalists. In the interwar period, internationalists focused on defending and then reforming the League of Nations and developing international law. World War II dealt a further blow to their ambitions, although the postwar fortunes of internationalism are mixed. For much of the Cold War, internationalism was surpassed by realism, but many new internationalist institutions, such as the United Nations (UN), played a major role in global politics.

Engines of progress: commerce and law

Liberal internationalists have proposed two key engines of transformation: international commerce and international law. Those are usually combined in liberal internationalist ideology, though the emphasis placed on each differs between thinkers. The economic argument claims that free trade leads to increasing levels of interdependence between states, thus decreasing the chances of war. Because free trade is not a zero-sum game, one of the key traditional sources of conflict is removed. Political cooperation follows from economic engagement. However, those arguments have been challenged. For example, free trade has been accused of increasing inequality and conflict. Moreover, the claim that economic interdependence automatically ameliorates the chances of conflict is disputable.

For realists, and many positivist lawyers, international law is either a misnomer, because there is no sovereign to enforce it, or it is irrelevant, because powerful states can ignore it. Liberal internationalists disagree, arguing that, although far from perfect, it is essential in regulating international behaviour and in strengthening liberal norms. As states habitually comply with the rules, so cooperation across the system will increase. Furthermore, liberal internationalists argue, international law should be embedded in institutional structures, such as the UN, and in supranational judicial bodies, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Modern manifestations

Historically, liberal internationalism has been a prescriptive ideology. Its empirical claims were fairly minimal, consisting of extrapolations based on selective readings of systemic trends. During and after the 1970s a prominent social scientific strand of liberal internationalism emerged. It was once labeled complex interdependence, but it is now most frequently termed globalization. Numerous scholars have argued that the intensity of transactions (social, cultural, and economic) across national borders has increased enormously and that, consequently, the world is becoming interdependent. That has led to a qualitative shift in the nature of the international system. That is a conception of liberal internationalism as a historical process rather than as an ideal.

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, liberal internationalism underwent a renaissance. The norm of inviolable state sovereignty was challenged widely, leading to numerous humanitarian interventions conducted in the name of universal human rights. The UN was (briefly) reinvigorated. Bodies such as the European Union presented a model for future supranational political structures. In the wake of the terrorist attacks perpetrated on September 11, 2001, against the United States, much of the optimism evaporated. Nevertheless, liberal internationalism continued to thrive as an area of academic study and political advocacy, both in academia (especially in international law and normative political theory) and in think tanks and international organizations throughout the world. Its impact on state behaviour is, however, more contestable.