Liberal%20Approaches%20to%20International%20Relations

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Liberal Approaches to International Relations

• POL 3080 Approaches to IR

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Three Major Distinctive Liberal Frameworks

• Interdependence and globalization tradition
  (Joseph Nye and Robert Keohane)
• Neoliberal Institutionalism (Robert Keohane and
  Lisa Martin)
• Democratic Peace Theory (Michael Doyle, Bruce
  Russett also David Lake)
• These are quite different than liberalism in
  American politics and political ideology!!!

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Commonalities Among Liberal Approaches

• Reject the Hobbesian view of human nature share
  a much more optimistic one
• Focus on opportunity, rather than constraints
• Assume prevalence of common interests
• See intentions as important as capabilities
• Focus on cost instead of survival as base
  motivating factor in IR (Realists mistakes as
  deadly liberals they are costly
• Predict different outcome of intl interaction
  compared to realists

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From Complex Interdependence to Globalization

• Assumptions
• -- contemporary world politics is not a seamless
  web but a tapestry of diverse relationships
• -- the resources that produce power capabilities
  have changed
• -- balance of power theories and national
  security imagery are poorly adapted to address
  problems of economic and ecological development
• -- military and economic interaction are not
  necessarily a zero-sum game
• -- does not assume that conflict disappears, but
  it takes new forms

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Defining Complex Interdependence

• Interdependence (mutual dependence) situations
  characterized by reciprocal effects among
  countries or actors
• It is not mere interaction or exchange, but a
  sustained relationship
• It is a condition in which transactions among
  actors have reciprocal costly effects
• Interdependence can be operationalized and
  measured

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Measuring Interdependence Sensitivity

• Sensitivity how quickly do changes in one
  country bring costly changes in another and how
  costly these effects are
• The focus is not on the amount of trade, but on
  the correlation between economic transactions to
  economic development
• Sensitivity interdependence is created within a
  framework of policies and assumes that it remains
  unchanged
• Sensitivity interdependence can be social,
  political, economic
• Sensitivity interdependence can also be a basis
  for political influence when it is costly to
  change policies

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Measuring Interdependence Vulnerability I

• Vulnerability -- actors liability to suffer costs
  imposed by external events after the policies
  have been altered
• Vulnerability rests on relative availability and
  costliness of alternatives that various actors
  face
• Vulnerability can be measured only by the
  costliness of making effective adjustments
• While sensitivity reflects change in the dynamic
  without policy changes, vulnerability can be
  manipulated through policy adjustment
• Vulnerability is more important than sensitivity
  in power resources to actors
• The key question is to determine how effectively
  altered policies bring sufficient added resources

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Vulnerability (continued) II

• Vulnerabilities may be asymmetric (e.g. the
  United States and the Soviet Union during the
  Cold War)
• Vulnerability includes strategic dimension that
  sensitivities does not capture
• Strategies of manipulating vulnerabilities also
  produce counter-strategies

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Complex Interdependence I

• Conceptual definition
• A combination of multiple issues with multiple
  channels challenges the ability of states to
  follow and apply a consistent strategy of linkage
  that will be effective in all issue areas.

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Complex Interdependence II

• For further details, please visit Blackboard or
  email me at ivanovid_at_ucmail.uc.edu
• Thank you!