Liberalism in IR

• Pro tip: Use theories of liberalism when giving way forward for
• Multilateral institutions
• liberal institutionalism for UN,WTO,etc
• India's bilateral relations
• like interdependence and social liberalism for India china/ India Pak
• Regional organisations
• Interdependence , social liberalism for SAARC
• All liberal approaches are similar to each other, hence when writing about one, link it with other liberal approaches

• Intro: liberalism in IR refers to an ideology that wants to create a peaceful world through the use of free trade,norms,values and international organisations.
• First school of intl politics which was dominant from 1991 to 2001

• features of liberal international order described in the works of Daniel Deudney and John Ikenberry

• Rejection of power view of international  politics
• Cosmopolitan view of international relations in which the world is viewed as a society of people , boundaries become irrelevant and people think of themselves as citizens of this planet and not of a particular nation
• role of international organizations and nongovernmental bodies to help shape state preferences, such as globalization, and public policy. Ex- Amnesty International serves people across borders and reminds authorities to respect and support human rights. 
• Liberal internationalism- international law and agreements are accompanied by international organisations. Ex- UN
• the spread of free trade and capitalism through the efforts of powerful liberal states and international organisations like the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank creates an open, market-based, international economic system. This situation is mutually beneficial as a high level of trade between states decreases conflict and makes war less likely, since war would disrupt or cancel the benefits (profits) of trade.
• international norms-Liberal norms favour international cooperation, human rights, democracy and rule of law. When a state takes actions contrary to these norms, they are subject to various types of costs. For example, the European Union placed an arms sale embargo on China following its violent suppression of pro-democracy protesters in 1989. 

• Influences:
• Locke- enlightened view of man.
• Immanuel Kant- in his pamphlet “perpetual peace” says promoting democracy and freedom of trade and commerce would establish peace.
• Norman Angell-( book: great illusion) Says it is great illusion think that was is in the benefit of anyone. Even victors suffer from wars.
• Woodrow Wilson- 14 point speech to US Congress in which he talks called for a rules based global order governed by international institutions in which countries could cooperate and achieve what he called “an organised common peace” rather than going to war to meet their goals.
  

• Schools in liberalism: (LSDFIC)
  

• Liberal institutionalism- applying domestic politics at International level
• 
• 
  Views of Joseph Nye- gave the following advantages
• Institutions provide a platform for resolution of disputes in a peaceful manner, otherwise the only option left is war
• When any country takes commitment at international level, there is a pressure of world public opinion and it is not easy to break the negotiations
• These institutions provide a platform for  communication on a regular basis, the only way to overcome the trust deficit among the states
• Criticism:
  
  Michael Lind - Neo liberals are dishonest about admitting their intentions for using Institutions for advancing American power.

• 
  Hedley Bull of English school-
• English school of IR (referred to as liberal realists) maintains that there is a 'society of states' at the international level, despite the condition of anarchy (that is, the lack of a global ruler or world state).
• Helps us to take the evolutionary view of international politics. It shows how growth of international organisations, diplomacy, regimes and even human reason, we have moved from anarchy to anarchical society.
• Since bull is a liberal realist, he criticises realists for taking anarchical view of IR. Says states abide by certain rules, regulations ,international laws,etc
• Bull gives the concept of neo medievalism- there is no single institution of authority. Nor there is any world govt, nor is the sovereignty of nations supreme.
• anarchical society i.e. intl institutions have helped bring some amount of qualitative change in the nature of intl politics. International politics is neither in the state of complete anarchy nor in the state of complete society, it is in the state of anarchical society .  We need to take evolutionary view of intl politics, we cannot ignore significant amount of coop between staates.
• Conflict and coop, anarchy and order , power and justice coexisitng
• Hence his Anarchical society is Hobbes minus Leviathan- there is a movement from pre political to political life by developing a rules based order, but there is lack of effective enforcement of the same.

• Social liberalism-
• from state centric to society centric approach
• 
  Karl Deutsch - Communication theory that says increase people to people contact(from track 1 to track 2 diplomacy, visa liberalisation).
•   Make a security community (high level of trust and don't see each other as a threat. Any threat is an external threat) like the EU and ASEAN. An alternative to realist’s theory of “security dilemma.”
• the approach strengthens liberal institutionalism as the security community is built around institutions like EU and ASEAN
• Higher the interaction more the trust. Interaction can be measured in terms of foreign travels, letters exchanged, phone calls made, visa issued. Leads to compels interdependence (Keohane and Nye) Link it with Thomas Friedman’s “golden arches” theory.
• High level of trust between Europe and America.
• Very low level of trust in South Asia
• (Use this approach in writing answers on India’s bilateral relations say with China or Pakistan or about SAARC)
• Acc to him there are two basic types of goal interdependence
• Positive interdependence – one party success correlated with another success or failure with failure
• Results from friendly bonding between two parties
• Yields cooperative relationship
• Win win situation
• Displays positive characteristics such as exhibition of effective communication, friendly attitude, feeling of agreement with others ideas, etc
• Negative interdependence – one party success correlating with the others failure
• Results From disliking man another
• Results in competitive relationship with the win – lose orientation
• Display of negative characteristics like obstructed communications, suspicion, dilemma,etc
• 
  John Burton-gives cobweb model in opposition to billiards ball model of Arnold Wolfers.
  Due to globalization"global civil society" has emerged. Globalization has made world society centric. People are interacting with each other through multiple gateways – social media, foreign travel, cultural exchange

• Functionalism- David Mitrany
• 
• Most successful liberal alternative for the realist theory of international politics
• He was inspired by Fabian socialists like GDH Cole and Richard Cobden, who believed that the good society could be built incrementally by bits and pieces(form follows functions approach)
• 
• Prof John McCormick
  

• 
  for the countries to go to war. EU started as European coal and steel community.
• India and Pak/china too can use this approach. They can first start with issues like trade and culture and then move towards complex issues like Kashmir and terrorism
• Criticism:
• Major challenge of this process is that it is an extremely long process and requires a lot of patience and will to carry forward
• Not very successful outside the western world , hence also suffers from Euro centricism.
• In context of rising nationalism and populism, in Europe as well the functionalist approach has taken a backseat.
• 
  Neo-functionalism- Ernst Haas
• in functionalism role of political actors is eliminated. But experience of EU shows that it is not possible to go beyond a point in integration without involvement of political class . Hence the role of actors in shaping institutions of country that try to create a peaceful regional environment is also important . Talks about epistemic communities(professionals like foreign policy experts and technocrats that can help decision makers solve complex issues. Ex ICAN, international campaign against nuclear weapons)

• Interdependence-
• 
  Richard Rosecrance - calls for increasing economic interdependence. Once stakes increase in each other’s economy it would be irrational to go to war.
• Interdependence theory has been described as golden arches theory by Thomas Friedman i.e. two countries having Macdonald chains do not go for war.
• gave the concept of trading states rather than military states e.g. Japan, Germany.  These countries increased their economic might rather than military might.

• Democratic peace theory:
• 
  Michael Doyle
• inspired by Kant
• say democracies form zones of peace.
• public debates, opinion of people matters before any country goes for war.
• Provides Justification for USA action to bring democracy at gun point{bush doctrine} and regime change.—> Neo conservatism in foreign policy
• Quad —> four democracies coming together to form zone of peace in Indo pacific.

• Complex interdependence:
• 
  Keohane and NYE
• a descriptive theory unlike others that are prescriptive. It describes post cold war inter state relations.
• Shows that countries have become interdependent in a highly complicated manner
• Besides economic cooperation there is rise of global threat and it is not in the capacity of a single state to deal with these threats alone so apart from economic interdependence there is also interdependence in climate change, terrorism, nuclear disarmament
• One is forced to love whom one would otherwise love to hate.
• 
  Arnold Wolfers- billiards ball model- initially after Westphalia world order got established, hard shells consistently colliding and hence war was a recurrent phenomena. No permanent friend/enemy. Main aim was to protect sovereignty and territorial integrity.It was a situation of anarchy.
• Growth of soft power increased but hard power did not lose relevance. US and china are under complex interdependence but still US is going for Containment and balancing.

• Current relevance of liberalism:
• crisis particularly after 9/11, War on terror and 2008 Lehman crisis
• recent elections of right wing leaders like trump, Bolsonaro, Viktor Orban,etc all talk of self sufficiency
• with COVID19 pandemic, globalisation as a concept of political economy has taken a hit and so has the liberal notion of world order.
• 
  Robert Kagan- liberal world order is crumbling under the pressure of populism and economic crisis
• EH Carr in his book-20 years crisis : Called the liberals as “Utopians” and says foreign policies of nations operate on logic of national interest.
• 
  CR Mohan : when power meets law it is usually the former that prevails.
• Criticism by Mearsheimer
• Liberalism can only be perceived in a uni-polar world (immediately after cold war) and not in a multi-polar world where states are powerful enough to pursue their own ideologies
• Bush doctrine in Middle East (Iraq and Afghanistan) failed miserably to create a liberal democracy and ended up creating more terrorist org.
• US wanting China to turn into a liberal democracy has caused more insecurity between the two nations

• 
  Conclusion: Donald Tusk( former president of European council): “Whoever claims that liberalism is obsolete also claims that freedoms are obsolete, that the rule of law is obsolete and that human rights are obsolete.

• Further reading
• https://www.e-ir.info/2018/02/18/introducing-liberalism-in-international-relations-theory/
• https://www.orfonline.org/research/when-liberalism-grows-up/