Communism is dead, but is the other post-war ideology, liberal internationalism, also dying? Liberalism was and is a ram against authoritarian regimes. It tries to free individuals from tyranny by providing them with the right to consent to their political institutions and to the policies pursued in the in the framework of these institutions, as well as with the set of freedoms protected from governmental intrusions and curtailments.
Contrary to realism charges, liberalism was thus anything but naïve about state power, whose reduction and domestication were deemed essential for the preservation f both peace abroad and liberty home. Self-determination was seen as the necessary corollary of liberal self-government. The plight of the liberal vision results from the fallacy of believing that all good things can come together. They rarely do, and many that they were expected to be good have turn out rotten.
The Wilsonian edifice, its Roosevelt version of 1945, the Bush coat of fresh paint of 1990, all were undertaken to deal with a world of interstate conflicts.
Liberalism has tried to limit legitimate force to self-defence and collective defence against aggression. The formation of global transnational economy constitutes a triumph of the liberal vision that first appeared in the eighteen century, but it also provides evidence of the fact that fulfilment of the vision has mounting costs and unexpected consequences.
Transnational economy.
The main triumph of the American administration (especially Clinton’s) have been in the vigorous offensive to pry open foreign markets, through the NAFTA, GATT and APEC. Liberalism remains the only comprehensive and hopeful vision of world affairs, but it needs to be thoroughly reconstructed.
", keyword0="Foreign Policy", keyword1="Human Rights", keyword2="Internationalism", keyword3="Rights", keyword4="Sovereignty", type="journal" }