iv The victor states in the wartime alliance against Nazi Germany pushed for a

iv. The victor states in the wartime alliance against Nazi Germany pushed for a new international institution to be created: the United Nations Charter was signed in June 1945 by 50 states in San Francisco. It represented a departure from the League in two important respects. Membership was near universal and the great powers were able to prevent any enforcement action from taking place which might be contrary to their interests. v. In the post-1945 period, liberals turned to international institutions to carry out a number of functions the state could not perform. This was the catalyst for integration theory in Europe and Pluralism in the United States. By the early 1970s Pluralism had mounted a significant challenge to Realism. It focused on new actors (transnational corporations, non-governmental organizations) and new patterns of interaction (interdependence, integration). vi. Neo-liberalism represents a more sophisticated theoretical challenge to contemporary Realism. Neo-liberals explain the durability of institutions despite significant changes in context. In their view, institutions exert a causal force on international relations, shaping state preferences and locking them into cooperative arrangements. vii. Democratic peace Liberalism and neo-liberalism are the dominant strands in liberal thinking today 4) Basic Principles i. Internal order: a state's foreign policy is not determined entirely by the international system around it, but rather by its own internal order - democratic, communist, dictatorial, etc. ii. Democratic governments and capitalistic economies: least aggressive states hence democratization of currently authoritarian states iii. Role of Non-state actors iv. Prime objective is world peace v. The growth of international organizations and international laws vi. Promotion of universal human rights and conflict prevention in the United Nations vii. Market liberalization through the World Trade Organization. viii. Domestic and international reforms must be linked

Compiled by Ayesha Younas A Project of CSS Writing Club ix. Absolute gains Vs relative gains: in other words, they are concerned with achieving a measurable increase in their own power and prosperity on their own terms, rather than more narrowly with increasing their power and prosperity relative to other states. x. Neo-conservatism under the late Clinton and Bush administrations owes much to liberal idealism. 5) Strengths and Weaknesses i. first major body of international political theory to focus explicitly on the problem of war and peace ii. allows for the analysis of non-state actors iii. democratic peace theory is one of the strongest claims to truth iv. theoretical incoherence and a Western-centric perspective v. naive to think that world peace is achievable, and wrong to include corporations and international organizations as important actors vi. liberalism ignores the frequently violent foreign policies of imperial democracies vii. limitations of concepts like "human rights," which are merely Western rather than truly universal.