Liberalism Since the Cold War: An Enemy to Itself?

‘An expensive commodity’? The impact of hope on US foreign policy during the ‘unipolar moment’

“…Liberalism – though far from homogeneous 6 – is inherently predicated on the idea of human progress, and the unfolding of forces that will irresistibly ‘improve the moral character and material welfare of humankind’ (Barnett, 2010: 26). As such, the triumph over communism aligned with liberalism’s underlying belief in progress – an idea described as ‘the teleological unfolding of cherished principles’ (Bell, 2016: 120) – and was unsurprisingly the catalyst for a renewed belief in liberalism’s ostensibly irresistible global spread (Hawthorn, 1999: 145). It was not the case, however, that liberals adopted a united position on the future after the end of the Cold War either in terms of the imminence of peace and prosperity, or the optimum strategy by which to bring about progressive change.…”

“…Aligned to this latter variant was a determination among some liberals to support ‘new interventionism’, namely, a policy of confronting rather than tolerating illiberal regimes (Hawthorn, 1999: 148–153). Thus, while liberalism espouses respect for pluralism and individualism within the context of a liberal polity, in the post–Cold War era liberal internationalists enjoined liberal states to adopt a different disposition internationally, one which rejected ideological plurality and respect for sovereign equality (Glennon, 1999: 7; Gow, 2005; Ignatieff, 2003; Robertson, 2002: 372; Tesón, 2005).…”

“…When the unipolar era 1 began, many predicted that the West – with the United States at its zenith – would spearhead progressive change bringing peace, prosperity and democracy to all (Barnett, 1997: 527; Muravchick, 1991; Nye, 1990; Shaw, 1994: 155). This belief was sustained by references to the democratic peace theory, economic interdependence and liberal institutionalism, all of which were ostensibly in the process of cohering to precipitate a progressive global transformation (Hawthorn, 1999: 145; Kagan, 2008: 5). 2 This was most famously articulated by Francis Fukuyama (1989); in ‘The End of History’, he heralded ‘the total exhaustion of viable systematic alternatives to Western liberalism’ and ‘the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government’ (p. 1).…”

Front Matter

“…Politically, the world would be a more intelligent place and enter a new long peace." (Hawthorn, 1999). With the fall of the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe, there was even talk of "the end of history", that is, the endpoint of man's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy (Fukuyama, 1989).…”