The Historical Evolution Within the Liberal Internationalism - Essay Example

Why the Cold war is considered a resurgence of liberal internationalism number Why the Cold war is considered a resurgence of liberal internationalism Introduction There is a great challenge that is facing the international community during the post cold war era. This is mainly related to the increasing happenings of the civil conflicts within borders as well as across borders. It is proven by the fact that most of the wars that were fought during or around the period of 1995 took place within different states hence being considered as intrastate wars. In relation to this, it has been a considerable challenge to devise appropriate ways through which such wars can be stopped. It is because of this that these kinds of violence have caused a considerable amount of debate among the different policy makers as well as students involved in conflict management in the recent years. Nonetheless, a greater problem is presented in the sense that it is becoming a crucially essential task to determine what can be done once the war comes to an end. A lot of efforts are thus being made in the form of operations that aim at preventing violence from being started once again after the hostilities have been stopped at the initial stages. This is usually known as the post conflict peace building.1 Post Conflict Peace building and liberal Internationalism The peace building that is performed in the form of different initiatives and operations after different kinds of war has been conducted in almost eight states that have been tremendously shattered by the cold war. These include Mozambique, Angola, El Salvador, Cambodia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Rwanda and Bosnia. It is an indication that the values of anti liberalism of warlordism, intolerance, torture and injustice is still highly experienced in the current world. It can be said that the reason for failure by most of these states can be associated with the policies that are laid on the point of liberalism. This is evident in relation to its ability to promote some of the irreconcilable norms of democracy, sovereignty, self determination of nationality and human rights.2 Thus, it is important that liberalism, which is known to be incomplete and highly under threat should be amended through the call for more liberalism. According to Ikenberry and Deudney, this can be achieved only through a single approach.3 This is the only path towards modernization and the liberal voices that are made to disappear through the will and efforts to open markets and force the government to accountability. International relations and Liberalism International relations have been shown to have a dominant theory, which is in the form of realism. However, liberalism is coming out with stronger claims that it is the historic alternative to the theory. It influenced the policy making process by many elites during the twentieth century and formed a considerable part of the public opinion in several of the Western States. This is mainly reflected in the period after the cold war which is also considered as the era referred to as idealism in academic international relations. A little bit of the resurgence of the liberal aspect of international relationships was experienced after the Second World War. This was evidenced by the birth of the United Nations. However, this beam of light was soon extinguished with the start of the power politics during the cold war.4 The moment of the post 1945 international order became successful and durable as a result of hegemony in the United States. It is because the state has upheld the liberal character for a long time. This logic is that it bears a lot of interest in the United States and its allies in the west. A challenge is thus presented in the sense of dealing with international relations since it becomes a powerful state over the institutions that it dominates. With this, they are able to claim their rights and privileges over the other members in the international society. It is with this that the component of liberal internationalism can be applied in the aspect of globalization in relation to the liberalism of privilege which is highlighted by Richardson.5 Post cold war period as a form of resurgence of the liberal internationalism The end of the cold war experienced euphoria from the liberalists in 1989. However, this has been dissipated by a number of events that have taken place after this. These include the war on terror as well as the September 11 attacks in the United States. The high number of conflicts and insecurity that have been witnessed after the cold war era and at the beginning of the twenty first era is an indication that liberal democracy is still an incomplete project that has a lot to be worked on. Liberalism was considered to be resurgent during the 1990s when a new world order was developed by most of them. In addition, theoretical justifications were provided by the present intellectuals to maintain the inherent supremacy of the liberal ideas that they provided over all the other ideologies that seemed competitive during that time. There have been divergent fortunes of liberalism in both the domestic and international realms. Liberal values and institutions have been greatly rooted in Europe and North America. Nonetheless, it is the same values and institutions with the lack of legitimacy across the globe. It is because of this that international relations have been considered to be distant activities from those of liberalism. According to Hoffman, who is a skeptic about realism the essence of liberalism lies in the ability to participate in self restrain, compromise, peace and moderation. 6 This is in great contrast with international relations that bears extremely opposite values. It is mainly focused on the opposite activities that include the state of war when it is at its best while on usual occasions it is based on the idea of troubled peace. This relationship thus does not come out as a surprising factor for realists who have been of the idea that there is no likelihood of experiencing law, progress or even justice in cases where there lacks common power. However, in spite of this, there is even a weightier argument that is presented by the liberals who argues that political power is in itself the product of ideas, which essentially have the ability to undergo change and transformation. In this sense, therefore, it can be debated that although the world has not been tolerant and hospitable to liberalism for a long time now, it is not a sure indication that it is not possible to remake it in its own image. Some of the periods that immediately followed the cold war era brought about hopelessness in the form of the assessments that emerged about the future and most especially in relation to politics around the world. This was an aspect that was based on the sharp contrast with that of the assumptions that were formulated in the field of political realism in the sense that they were guided by the International Relations discipline with the entire linkage to the cold war. As is indicated by some of the people, some little form of liberal internationalism was taking place although it was undergoing a renaissance. However, since this time, there have been some considerable cautious voices that have been raised. In this way, realists have been privileged to have a more direct way to contest the increasing level of tenability in relation to the liberal ideas and information. For instance, some of them have raised their fingers towards the recurring conflicts and war in Yugoslavia among other places. On the other hand, realists have also created the argument that the peaceful features related to the post cold war era are political, superficial and historically generated. However, even those who are in some way sympathetic towards liberalism have continued to encourage the continued debate and deliberation about the substantial principles that it raises rather than the celebration that it raises without criticisms. Hoffman believes that the most recent form of resurgence that is related to liberal internationalism only form a hidden factor in the deeper crisis. This is because there still exist large groups of tension filled moments as well as many unresolved paradoxes in the area of the liberal world view. They have in most instances that not been appropriately reconciled. He therefore supports the view provided by Isaiah Berlin on the same. He thus suggests that liberal internationalism mostly is overwhelmed by lack of claim that all good items and activities are likely to occur together and at the same time. It is because he mainly possesses sympathetic feelings towards the aims of the reformists to create liberal internationalism. Nonetheless, he is of the argument that liberalism contains many other promises that have not been fulfilled. They include the aspects of peace and freedom that surpass the basic conflicts that are present between different classes in addition to those between states and regions. He provides the argument that the post cold war era has been acted as a resurgence of the liberal nationalism and hence brought about a new role in the United States as well as the most common discussion that it forms with regard to nationalism. Some of the ways through which the post cold war era is considered to be the resurgence of liberal internationalism is shown in three different phases. These include the first liberal internationalism that is mainly identified with the League of Nations and the numerous and attendant commitments that were made to the liberal principles associated with free trade, self determination in the national aspect and security that is collectively provided. The second kind of liberal internationalism that was raised after the post cold war is the second phase that took place in 1945 in an era that was literally composed of liberalism. The third type and phase of this liberal internationalism is associated with the globalization aspect of liberalization that took place alongside the hollowing out of capacities of the state and different institutional authorities.7 Historically, the discipline of International relations was a great revelation about the collapse of the League of Nations, which dealt an extremely fatal blow towards idealism. It served as an indication that the liberalism language that took place after the year 1945 was quite pragmatic since anyone living in the shadow of the holocaust could not be expected to be optimistic in any way. However, there are still more familiar and core ideas of liberalism that remained. Even during the period of the early 1940s, it was recognized that there was need to provide a more considerable replacement for the league. It required an international institution that had international responsibilities to provide international security and peace. It is only that at this time, the United Nations was more aware of the charter that provided the need to form a consensus among the great powers so as to enforce the action that needed to be taken among the present framers. It is this that led to the Veto system that made it possible for the five permanent members present in the Security Council the power to veto (Article 27 of the UN Charter). In this revision, that was properly constituted, the important change of the important classical model to provide the collective form of security were developed both as the form of super powers and their accomplices would veto any of the other actions proposed by the others. After the cold war, a security system which had a collective system was put into place and started its operations after the invasion of Iraq by Kuwait in 1990.8 The invasion was an indication that there were still a lot of limitations in relation to the area of liberal internationalism hence the support of the numerous warning provided. These are familiar to most of the people involved in the area of international relations. How liberal internationalism brings about reforms Michael W. Doyle, accepts the idea that liberalism does not contain any form of canonical description. However, the major thing that most scholars place as the ethical goal of liberalism is individual freedom. This is, however, with the many different forms of freedom that have varied since the historical times.9 Conclusion However, the recent resurgence of liberal internationalism that has been highly associated with the post war era should not exceed the significance debate and division that is encompassed within the tradition. The most important and deepest of these concerns that are linked to this division is the ethical aspect that is mainly concerned with whether or not a sovereign state is relative to the liberal goals and individual freedom. It is an important element to find out why this ethical issue has been obscured in so many aspects and accounts of the liberal and theoretical tradition to show and demonstrate why the ethical nature of sovereign as well as individual freedom are implied in the issue that is much more salient on how to provide ways to deal with international politics. There are two main significant reasons why the ethical core of liberal internationalism that has been highly contested is more likely to receive a lot of attention in the scholarly field. In the first place, the changes that take place within the historical evolution within the liberal internationalism create a lot of difficulties in avoiding the ethical questions. In addition, it is the development of the critical theory that is found within the discipline of International Relations has more questions that are both legitimate and important to the activity. References Doyle, M. (1997). Ways of War and Peace. Realism, Liberalism, and Socialism. New York: W. W. Norton. Doyle, M. (1986). ‘Liberalism and World Politics’, American Political Science Review, 80 (4): 1151–69. Hoffmann, S. (1987). Janus and Minerva. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 394–436. Hoffmann, S. (1998). Stanley Hoffmann. World Disorders: Troubled Peace in the Post-Cold War Era. Lanham, Maryland and Oxford, England: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Ikenberry, G. J. (2009). ‘Liberal Internationalism 3.0: America and the Dilemmas of Liberal World Order’, Perspectives in Politics, 71 (1): 71–87 Ikenberry, G. John, & Deudney, Daniel. (1999). The nature and sources of liberal international order. Review of international studies, 25; 179-196. Richardson, J. L. (1997). ‘Contending Liberalisms: Past and Present’, European Journal of International Relations, 3 (1): 5–33. Read More