engleski

Classical realist critique of international 'science of peace'

The stream of thought that is in contemporary International Relations theory generally labeled as Liberal tradition, is a derivative from the wide range ideas – from liberal economists i.e. Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill, utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham to Perpetual Peace by Immanuel Kant. In short, it is a modern world-view that a) states should through international trade become interdependent, making war obsolete, and b) international law should dominate politics through the international organization as a legal authority par excellence, which mediates all inter-state disputes. The paper will present the critique of this tradition, mainly focusing on the works of E.H. Carr and H.J. Morgenthau. The critique is three-fold: first, it epistemologically challenges the liberal faith in human reason as uniform and universal, stating instead that the political ideas and interests are subjectively determined by contingent perceptions of actors ; second, international harmony of interests in a free trade interdependent world is nothing but the hypocritical legal justification for the new form of imperialism ; third, international law is dependent on the political will of states and not vice versa, thus any attempt to impose by force transnational norms and rules as universally biding would eventually clash with the realities of real world politics.

Morgenthau, Classical Realism, Liberal Peace

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