Contemporary Liberal Theories

Abstract

Understanding liberalism’s prominent, yet fickle, role in world politics requires, first of all, a definition of liberal internationalism. Yet, such a definition is not readily available. The term liberal internationalism’ is sometimes used to narrowly denote ‘missionary’ liberal foreign policies, sometimes to indicate more broadly the application of liberal principles and practices to international politics, and sometimes simply the foreign policies of liberal states. Conversely, all these practices have also simply been called ‘liberal’ or even, as the foreign policies of liberal states during the Cold War period, ‘realist’.