LIBERALISM

Does liberalism provide a more viable framework for building peace among states?



Does liberalism provide a more viable framework for building peace among states?

Introduction

Building peace among states has become more difficult over the period of past few years. The reason behind this difficulty is the worsening political and economic conditions around the globe. Various research argue that despite of the debates that explains the attraction and positive effects of the liberalism framework from the perspective of maintaining peace between the states, it does not apply to every political and economic context (Doyle; 1983, p.30).

This is true because the liberalism peace theory can be successful in any nation depending on variety of facts and assumptions. For example, the liberalism peace theory assumes that the nation on which the theory is being applied has completely evolved and stale government. This essay argues that liberalism does not provide a more viable framework for building peace among states, globally. Under some context, especially the western countries, the theory may be highly successful but it can't be applied to all countries. To support this argument, the essay describes some of the peace debates, the relation between these debates and the theory of International Relations. Some of the critical work on the postcolonial implications of liberalism is also discussed.

Discussion

Peace building in the nations has become one of the major questions for the politicians and scholars today. They have been involved in developing the strategies that could result in sustainable peace in the conflict-prone and post-conflict sates (Newman, et.al, pp. 3, 2009). In fact, the world has been searching for the ways of maintaining global peace, since the end of First World War. Earlier it as considered that the establishment of international organization could develop international peace, but the concept was failed with the start of World War 2. Due to the failure of maintaining world peace, over 370 million people have been killed as a result of domestic political murder by governments and wars. Thus, it has become essential for the governments to develop the strategies that could result in lasting peace among the nations.

Various researchers argue that the theory of liberalism can provide assistance in maintaining peace in the nations, and putting an end to the wars and conflicts. Liberalism is the political doctrine that focuses mainly on the rights of an individual. The scholars following the liberalism theory believes that government should be there in order to protect individuals and maintaining the law and order conditions in the country, but at the same time they also argue that politics tends to affect the individual's liberalism negatively (Britannica, 2012). Next, the essay describes some of the theories that argues against the capability of liberalism for building peace between the states.

The 'Kantian' three part democratic peace theory (Kacowicz; 1998, p.41) relies on the hypothesis, externalisation of liberal norms in the international relations. The liberal democratic framework has been considered as an essential component of its causal logic of all the countries (Rosato; 2003, ...