Plan for Today: Forms of Liberalism in IR

1. Plan for Today:Forms of Liberalism in IR • Delving in detail into newer forms of liberalism: • “English school”. • Liberal Interdependence. • Neoliberal Institutionalism.

2. International Society/ “English School”: Hedley Bull • The Anarchical Society (1977) • Argued that a society of sorts has developed in international politics. • Criticizes realist view that anarchy is brutal: • International state of nature not Hobbesian state of nature. • Perhaps Lockean state of nature instead.

3. International Society/ “English School”: Hedley Bull • Limited society develops in system of states that are in constant contact with one another. • Examples: • “Hue and cry” raised by other states when one state does something morally abhorrent. • Loyalty among allies – carries on beyond the security needs of states.

4. Liberal Interdependence Theory • Ontology: Includes many different kinds of actors as being causally significant actors. • “Global civil society” States “Experts” International organizations NGOs MNCs

5. Liberal Interdependence Theory • Free trade and removal of barriers to commerce  integration and cooperation among states. • Early works: cooperation in limited technical areas could “spill over” into other areas for mutual benefit. • E.g. Keohane & Nye (1977)

6. Liberal Interdependence Theory • Technological change of key importance (esp. communications, travel). • Increases power of nonstate actors. • Email and Internet revolutionary. • E.g. Friedman: Lexus and the Olive Tree. • Decreases costs & risks of cooperation. • Trade less costly. • More information to decrease uncertainty.

7. Neoliberal Institutionalism • Assumptions (accept realist) – Robert Keohane, After Hegemony (1984) • States are the main actors. • States are selfish and rational actors. • International system is anarchic.

8. Neoliberal Institutionalism • Principal Claims: • New conclusion : cooperation can develop among states under anarchy. • Anarchy is mitigated by regimes and institutional cooperation, which bring regular patterns to IR.

9. Neoliberal InstitutionalismRegimes • Regime (Krasner definition): • “implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decisionmaking procedures around which actors’ expectations converge in a given area” • i.e. sets of rules that may or may not have international organizations associated with them. • Similar to “institution.” • Bigger than individual agreements.

10. Neoliberal InstitutionalismRegimes • Example: Bretton Woods international monetary regime (1944-1970s) • Governed currency relations among states, allowing for significant domestic capital controls. • International Monetary Fund created as part of regime.

11. Neoliberal InstitutionalismRegimes • Neoliberals: argue regimes can play role in helping states to realize mutual interests. • Neorealists: argue regimes defined according to power capabilities of states. • E.g. Bretton Woods – reflected US interests.

12. Neoliberal Institutionalism • Area and Problems of Focus: • Chiefly economic issues. • Usually actions to resolve instances of market failure: problems that prevent markets from providing socially optimal allocation of resources.