Ebook: Liberalism and World Politics

The American Political Science Review, Vol. 80, No. 4 (Dec., 1986), pp. 1151-1169
Published by: American Political Science Association.Building on a growing literature in international political science, I reexamine the traditional liberal claim that governments founded on arespect for individual liberty exercise"restraint" and "peaceful intentions" in their foreign policy. I look at three distinct theoretical traditions of liberalism, attributable to three theorists: Schumpeter, a democratic capitalist whose explanation of liberal pacifism we often invoke; Machiavelli, a classical republican whose glory is an imperialism
we often practice; and Kant, a liberal republican whose theory of internationalism best accounts
for what we are.
Despite the contradictions of liberal pacifism and liberal imperialism, I find, with Kant and
other democratic republicans, that liberalism does leave a coherent legacy on foreign affairs.