The hierarchy arguments that constitute part of the LIO concept suffer two key weaknesses. On related understandings of legitimacy, see Ian Hurd, Legitimacy and Authority in International Politics, International Organization, Vol. His contributions to SAGE Publications's. Mandelbaum, The Ideas that Conquered the World, pp. Find more answers Ask your question universalising mission of liberal values such as democracy undermine the traditions and practices of non-western cultures, (Baylis and Smith, 2001, pg 179). China was, however, increasingly integrated into the international economy, including the WTO, during this period; economic interdependence between the United States and China grew dramatically, as did China's wealth. Equality As required by the law, all people should be treated equally regardless of their social status, ethnicity, gender, or religion. hope this can help Advertisement Still have questions? For a discussion of more basic elements that influence orders, see Martha Finnemore, The Purpose of Intervention: Changing Beliefs about the Use of Force (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2003), pp. Institutions cannot prevent a state from using its military capabilities in high-stakes situations, so if allies had serious doubts about U.S. intentions, they would have been unwilling to run large military risks.67 In contrast, information about a powerful ally's benign intentions can make binding unnecessary. Realists accuse internationalists of being naive and even dangerously utopian, and internationalists accuse realists of being overly fatalistic. First, it would improve analysis of U.S. interests and threats to those interests. Whether China's economic inclusion is a net positive for the United States remains an open question, but it certainly strengthens the economic pillar of the LIO. International Relations Overview & Topics | What is International Relations? 61, No. On possible mechanisms, see Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett, A Framework for the Study of Security Communities, in Adler and Barnett, eds., Security Communities (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. In short, although institutions can influence international outcomes, when the benefits of defection are large, self-enforcing agreements can be difficult or virtually impossible to design, and binding cannot solve this problem. Discussions of the LIO have said little about the nature and the magnitude of these possible interactions, although Jones and his coauthors note that virtually every measure of policy undertaken under the goals of peace, prosperity and justice are in the long term mutually reinforcing.82. For example, balance of threat theory does an excellent job of explaining the basics of NATO's Cold War cohesion and effectiveness. 10, No. Although perhaps counterintuitive, it was the early postCold War decades that posed the greatest threat to the security elements of the LIOthe lack of major power threats to U.S. security weakened U.S. alliances. For example, Lake, Hierarchy in International Relations, pp. This is not to imply that this type of authority and duty does not exist in other types of relationships. Let's take a closer look at some of these basic principles. Liberalism in world politics is multifaceted, encompassing aspects such as international cooperation, democratic peace, denial of power politics, international law, cosmopolitanism,. 4345, doi.org/10.1162/isec.21.4.5. Liberman, Trading with the Enemy: Security and Relative Economic Gains, International Security, Vol. On different types of orders, and how they are combined in the LIO, see Ikenberry, After Victory, pp. 3. 102103. 3 (May/June 2014), pp. The resultant rising standard of living would promote democracy via the creation of a middle class striving to achieve political influence. 7791. For an extensive treatment, see Schweller, The Problem of International Order Revisited, pp. 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. Hostname: page-component-75b8448494-m747x According to this argument, hierarchy plays a central role in explaining cooperation among NATO's member states. Regime type can provide a state with information about other states intentions. 1 (October 1997), pp. As mentioned, balance of threat theory underscores that power is not the only factor that should influence states decisions about balancing.75 The belief among EU states that U.S. motives are essentially benign, at least as they pertain to the use of military force to compel or defeat members of the EU, largely explains this lack of external balancing.76, Proponents of the liberal hegemonic order claim that it played an important role in maintaining great power peace during and after the Cold War. Liberal internationalism offers an optimistic solution. Liberalism in international relations means that nations are able to cooperate and collaborate in the pursuit of greater mutual goals. 90, No. Dedicated to your worth and value as a human being! For more than a decade, it has become increasingly clear that China is building conventional and nuclear forces designed to reduce U.S. military capabilities. For example, allowing foreign troops to be deployed on one's territory and forgoing nuclear weapons can increase a state's vulnerability vis--vis its more capable ally. See Richard K. Betts, American Strategy: Grand vs. Grandiose, in Richard Fontaine and Kristen M. Lord, eds., America's Path: Grand Strategy for the Next Administration (Washington, D.C.: Center for a New American Security, May 2012), pp. China is not a democracy, and it is not a member of the United States security alliances in Asia; indeed, China is now the target of these alliances. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. Should it make concessions in East Asia that are essentially precluded by the LIO's status quo bias? Collective security replaces the realist idea of self help. International Security 2019; 43 (4): 5187. As Jack Donnelly explains, anarchy and hierarchy are not opposites, and hierarchy can exist within anarchy.49 Therefore, hierarchy within the LIO would not reveal much about the comparable relationship between the states that are included within the order and those outside itincluding, most importantly, the Soviet Union during the Cold War and China today. On the assumption that the member in which the structural form changes from steel reinforced concrete (SRC) structure to reinforced concrete (RC) structure, two kinds of experiments were carried. Liberalism has also produced a network of greater collective security that helps protect nation states from attacks by aggressors such as in the 1990s when states stepped in to stop the bloodshed of the Balkan civil war. Liberalism applies to internationalism in the sense that nations, like individuals, should be free to pursue their goals without restrictions. Unlike the LIO concept, however, bargaining theory does not require legitimacy or duty, neither of which is evident in NATO. This article proceeds in eight sections. Consequently, the LIO concept can shed little light on the most important issues in international politicsspecifically, the prospects for peace and cooperation between the United States and its allies, on the one hand, and its adversaries and competitors, on the other. 2 Strengths and weaknesses of Liberalism as a theory of international relations Introduction Liberalism is a characteristic of the modern-day democracy system. on international security affairs. 1 (Summer 1992), pp. 4 (Autumn 1992), pp. 4990, doi.org/10.1162/ISEC_a_00199; and Michael D. Swaine, Wenyan Deng, and Aube Rey Lescure, Creating A Stable Asia: An Agenda for a U.S.-China Balance of Power (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2016). what are the differences between liberal and socialist internationalism? The argument is not so much wrong as it is incomplete. The comparison with Kennedy is not a remark on Kennedy's strength but on DeSantis' weakness. The preservation of liberties is seen to liberals as the basis of society and that they want to export it as it is way in which in reducing world anarchism and prevent war. 70, No. Scholars have extensively debated the impact of democracy on international politics.22 Democratic peace theory, which explains cooperation and peace between democracies, and related features of democratic exceptionalism have received much support, although scholars continue to disagree over which specific mechanisms produce these outcomes. Liberal ideas and trends often over take local ideas which can be viewed as totalitarian, a view taken by Booth and Smith, the assumption that universal norms and values will triumph over those based on particular local contexts is a feature which contemporary liberalism, (Booth and Smith, 1995, pg 92). The legitimacy of the most powerful state reflects its willingness to rely on bargaining to achieve consensus.25 The LIO is built on negotiated rules that all states, including the most powerful state, accept. The strengths of liberalism only apply to those that are wealthy and in power. Despite the limited explanatory power of the LIO concept, collecting the LIO's disparate components under a single umbrella could still have analytic value, if interactions between them result in the LIO being more than the sum of its parts. The LIO lens essentially skips these steps by assuming that the LIO is a fundamental U.S. interest; anything that threatens the LIO is therefore a threat to U.S. interests. Render date: 2023-05-02T03:43:57.309Z Expert Answer. He concludes, The power gap may have been necessary, but was not sufficient to explain the dearth of balancing. It was once labeled complex interdependence, but it is now most frequently termed globalization. For perspective on the extent of disagreement within the expert community, see the sections by J. Stapleton Roy, Aaron Friedberg, Thomas Christensen and Patricia Kim, and Kurt Campbell and Ely Ratner, in Wang Jisi et al., Did America Get China Wrong? Consistent with this evidence, many China experts believed that integrating China into the world economy would not lead to a democratic China, at least not within a relevant time frame.59. 1329; and John J. Mearsheimer, Structural Realism, in Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki, and Steve Smith, eds., International Relations Theory: Discipline and Diversity, 3rd ed. Nevertheless, the structural relationship between the states is hierarchical, because the most powerful state disproportionately influences the terms of the agreement. 3 (Summer 1992), pp. By adopting a grand-strategic framework, analysts can correct the LIO's status quo bias, make theoretical debates more explicit, and ensure that a wider array of foreign policy options receive due consideration. Another key feature of liberal internationalism is faith in the virtuousness and effectiveness of international organizations and supranational political structures to help create a cooperative, safe and peaceful international environment. The critical point for the binding argument is that high-stakes cases are precisely those in which weak states need the most confidence in the effectiveness of institutional binding. Liberals argue about the preservation of individual liberty such as the freedom of free speech and freedom to trade. The LIO concept includes some theories/mechanisms about the nature of threats to U.S. interests and about possible solutions: authoritarian regimes are dangerous, democracies are not; economic engagement can reduce incentives for war; economic growth will convert authoritarian regimes to democracies; and so on. F.A. 3 (Winter 1994/95), pp. Democratic Socialism: Overview, Pros & Cons | What is Democratic Socialism? This section reviews the key interactions that the international relations literature has identified between the security and prosperity components of the LIO.83 The analysis yields two findings. The defensive strand of realismbalance of threat theoryexplains alliances as states reactions to threats, which are determined not only by an adversary's power but also by the extent of its offensive capability and its intentions. Although proponents of selective/deep engagement accept that there is some uncertainty about whether U.S. forward-deployed security commitments are necessary to preserve the open international economic system, they conclude that the value of economic openness warrants buying insurance via these security commitments. In other words, my critique does not rely on taking a specific position in the continuing debate over the arguments that lie at the core of liberalism.43. Along these lines, see, for example, James Steinberg and Michael E. O'Hanlon, Strategic Reassurance and Resolve: U.S.-China Relations in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2014); Charles L. Glaser, A U.S.-China Grand Bargain? Third, a grand-strategic framework would identify the full spectrum of broad options for achieving U.S. security and prosperity, ranging from neo-isolationist policies that would terminate U.S. alliances to global hegemony that requires intense military and economic competition with China. This article has argued that framing U.S. foreign policy in terms of the LIO is deeply problematic. Briefly, part of the problem is Waltz's overstatement of this argument; once modified, basic information arguments can explain this specialization. An example of the west trying to export democratic values in an ever internationally politicised world is on Iraq and Afghanistan, through the military intervention in Iraq 2003 and the attack on the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. See, among others, Charles L. Glaser, Why Unipolarity Doesn't Matter (Much), Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Vol. In the early years following World War II, however, the United States shifted to an economic policy that favored and protected its allies. Instead it will be a non-liberal, non-hegemonic world. Whether this will be possible without the United States enjoying a large stable power advantage is the source of extensive scholarly and policy debate.101 China's integration into the global economy is likely now so extensive that greatly reducing it would be too costly and would do little to forestall further U.S. relative economic losses.102 In this case, the United States will need to commit itself to long-term domestic policies designed to preserve its overall ability to compete.103. The realization of long-term mutual interests is of greater value than the attainment of independent short-term goals. European beliefs/information about the United States benign intentions reflected not only its democratic regime type, but also its historical reluctance to engage in European security affairs. 4 (Autumn 2000), pp. These actions suggest that China's decision not to balance sooner reflected, at least in part, its recognition of its limited power, not a strategy for rising peacefully.72 They provide support for the argument that power alone may be sufficient to explain China's initial lack of balancing.73 In addition, the difficulty of attacking across long distances and water, and the deterrent value of nuclear weaponsfactors that favor defense over offense, and thereby reduce the threat posed by U.S. powerlikely contributed to China's muted balancing.74, Second, although a focus solely on power may explain China's behavior, it does not explain why the member states of the European Union (EU) did not create a unified military capability to balance against the United States. Liberal internationalists have stressed a variety of agents of and strategies for reform. U.S. discussions of the international order fit firmly in this category.8 In contrast, other analyses highlight the contested nature of norms and institutions, which they attribute to the combined effects of the unequal distribution of global power and the tremendous influence of the most powerful states in shaping the order.9 These analyses place greater weight on questions of justice, global inequality, and poverty, and emphasize their importance for the order's legitimacy. The United States NATO allies ran these risks during the Cold War and continue to do so today. Abstract. 1. The author thanks Avery Goldstein for bringing this possibility and the NATO example to his attention. But as with every international paradigm there are strengths and weaknesses. In the final analysis, while liberal internationalism doesn't provide a complete picture of how the world of international relations currently works, it provides at least a partial explanation, and perhaps more importantly, sets forth an aspirational path to pursue. 27, No. A specific type of international orderthe liberal international order (LIO)plays a central role in current analyses of and debates over U.S. foreign policy. First, the magnitude of these interactions is difficult to establish and remains disputed. To begin, even if the weaker state becomes more vulnerable within the alliance, the security benefits vis--vis its current adversaries could more than offset these risks, resulting in net benefits for the weaker state. 50, No. on all aspects of the control and use of force, from all political As with the LIO, there is no agreed set of mechanisms that form the LIO concept. Among its main proponents were politicians, including John Bright and Richard Cobden, and philosophers, including John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer. In addition, features of an effective marketincluding the rule of law and property rightswould favor the development of civil society and, in turn, support liberal democracy.38, In the postCold War era, the most important candidates for convergence were Russia and especially China, given its potential to become an economically advanced peer competitor of the United States. Infringing peoples rights is typically against Liberal thinking because they believe in the sanctity of human rights and an end to human suffering. He directs the Elliott School's Institute for Security and Conflict Studies. The Hard Choice between Military Competition and Accommodation, International Security, Vol. Instead, it is concerned essentially with cooperation within the LIO and especially between allies. 161186, doi.org/10.1162/016228801753212886. 3042, doi.org/10.2307/2539010. } Jones et al., The State of the International Order, p. 4. See also Charles A. Kupchan, Unpacking Hegemony: The Social Foundations of Hierarchical Order, in G. John Ikenberry, Power, Order, and Change in World Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014). 2 (Fall 2013), pp. Cold War grand strategy of containment called for protecting Western Europe from the Soviet Union; NATO was created for this purpose and is a key component of the LIO. A second example is NATO's ability to maintain its cohesion as German power increased in the 1950s and 1960s. Bruce Jones and his coauthors state, Historically, one of the fundamental objectives of multilateral order is straightforward: To avoid great power war.77 Ikenberry holds that the liberal hegemonic order won the Cold War.78 Wright argues that, following the Cold War, convergence's initial success utterly transformed world politics and produced an unprecedented period of peace and cooperation among the major powers.79. G. John Ikenberry notes that in a balance of power order, out of the resulting stalemate of power, order arises. At least until the Trump administration, China's rise was increasing the depth and cohesion of U.S. alliances in Northeast Asia. diplomatic and military history. Whereas the LIO analysis implicitly assumes that the answer is yes, the current debate over U.S. grand strategy is deeply divided on this issue.100 Should the United States continue to favor economic openness? Overall, liberal internationalism has both strengths and weaknesses as a foreign policy approach. However, while the causes of Cold War peace and the end of the Cold War have fueled much debate and generated many competing explanations, the LIO is rarely among them.80 Effective balancing by U.S. alliances, deterrence supported by nuclear weapons, and bipolarity are much more prominent explanations for the Cold War peace. Similarly, it likely contributes to U.S. underappreciation of the threat that the U.S.-Japan alliance, especially the broadening of Japan's responsibilities in the alliance, poses to China. As I believe, liberalism offers the possibility of peace even as states amass power, on the basis that power has now taken a less destructive form, from guns to bank notes and exports. 1 (Summer 2010), pp. The next step is to consider threats to these interests. I argue that because of weaknesses in three of the mechanisms that constitute the LIO conceptbinding, hierarchy, and political convergencethe LIO does not provide the United States with significant indirect security benefits. See, for example, Jeff D. Colgan and Robert O. Keohane, The Liberal Order Is Rigged: Fix It Now or Watch It Wither, Foreign Affairs, Vol. The characteristics of internationalism are: support for international organizations, appreciation of diversity, promotion of world peace, and opposition to nationalism, which focuses on the interests of a single nation. Evidence of hierarchy is difficult to identify, because bargaining between a more powerful state and a weaker one can produce outcomes that appear similar to those supposedly explained by legitimate authority. 100103. 167214, doi.org/10.2307/2009958; Charles L. Glaser, The Security Dilemma Revisited, World Politics, Vol. Democracy would then lead to cooperation and peace between the great powers via the logic of the democratic peace. A critique of the liberal perspective is that it wants to achieve world peace through international cooperation and the upholding of civil liberties, it operates with the goal of achieving world peace through cooperation and respect for human rights, (Larry Wilde, 2009, pg 4). The belief of Liberals to give aid to those in third world countries has greatly helped and improved the lives of so many. 54, No. 96, No. Some experts conclude that the Chinese system is fragile, but others observe authoritarian resilience.56 At a minimum, policy analysts need to appreciate that the Chinese leadership has pursued a diversified strategy for preserving its hold on power, including not only promoting economic growth and engaging in repression of critics of the regime, but also improving the provision of public goods, increasing input from stakeholders outside the Communist Party, and pursuing cooptation by bringing economic and social elites into the regime.57 Moreover, China experts have identified important differences between China's emerging middle class and the middle classes of other countries that have transitioned to democracy, including its relative newness, its continuing support for China's authoritarian system, and its recognition that it lacks the ability to effectively challenge this system.58 These differences, in combination with the government's policies for retaining power, suggest that the probability of a democratic transition in China was unlikely over the past couple of decades. For example, a variety of theories have identified positive interactions between U.S. alliances and the open economic system. 5090, doi.org/10.2307/2539079. Finally, the Soviet Union was largely excluded from the West's open markets and its financial system; thus, economic interdependence arguments do not apply. 96, No. The LIO lens lacks analytic value, both because the LIO concept is inward looking, which leaves it unable to address U.S. interactions with its adversaries, and theoretically weak, which leaves it unable to explain much about the United States interactions with its allies. 24, No. The LIO discourse proceeds as though these theories are widely accepted, when in fact scholarly debate over them continues. Theorists of the LIO claim that many facets of democratic states help make feasible a liberal order that produces cooperation, unilateral restraint, and peace: democratic states have common interests; they expect that interactions will be based on consensus and reciprocity, not simply on the exercise of power; they can overcome the security dilemma; and they can make credible commitments that provide confidence that powerful states will restrain their use of force.21 As a result, democracies are better able to maintain alliances, pursue open trade, and establish and abide by rules that guide international behavior. Provide examples to support your argument. In the international relations theory literature, hierarchy has a variety of meanings and logics. 147175, doi.org/10.2307/2539111. 39, No. For example, Patrick, World Order; Bruce Jones et al., The State of the International Order, Policy Paper No. Liberalists believe that there will be conflict when actors cannot agree on an interest, however, they keep an optimistic outlook on the possibility of cooperation. 129160. Thomas Wright recounts how leading analysts held that the combination of U.S. power, the advantages of globalization, and the United States willingness to open the LIO to other major powers explain the lack of balancing against the United States in the postCold War era. On preserving the liberal order, but also the limits that should be placed on democracy promotion, see Michael W. Doyle, A Liberal View: Preserving and Expanding the Liberal Pacific Order, in T.V. It should also be noted that China is much more integrated into the international economy, including importantly via the WTO, than the Soviet Union ever was. On the feasibility of collective action without a hegemon, see Duncan Snidal, The Limits of Hegemonic Stability Theory, International Organization, Vol. I then show that the LIO concept's inward focus largely undermines its explanatory value. Consequently, the weaker states consider the most powerful state's overwhelming influence in establishing the terms of the consensus to be legitimate.26 Accordingly, the weaker states are less likely to try to overturn the agreement or regime, which increases the most powerful state's prospects for maintaining its position over the long run.
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