A More Perfect Union? The Liberal Peace and the Challenge of Globalization
In: Review of international studies: RIS, Band 26, Heft special issue, S. 81-94
ISSN: 0260-2105
Argues that Kantian peace is being limited by globalization & through relations between liberal & autocratic states, & explores whether Kantian liberal peace can be sustained through increasing global interdependence. As globalization erodes the national accountability essential to republican states, countries are forced to make potentially harmful decisions, eg, the WTO enforcing the importation of unwanted genetically engineered food. Globalization has supported the widening of the divide between the wealthy & the steadily increasing number of people in poverty. Global democratization is proposed, but structural weaknesses undermine its practicality: huge disparities limit the potential for consensus on trade, development, & the environment & the lack of a unified identity constrain the formation of a union. Kant's historical compromise of "domestic liberty, republican participation, & market democracy" may be the best hope of avoiding international anarchy. L. A. Hoffman