![]() ![]() This assumption turned out to be, in the short run at least, unfounded. After all, the sharp end of economic interdependence was that the Russian economy -a fraction the size of the EU and US ones-would shrivel up if cut off from these sources of trade. Among those who thought an invasion was plausible, the main response on the table were sanctions. The most potent military force in the European Union, France, continued in its belief that Russia would not launch a full scale war on Ukraine right until the invasion happened. Russia’s limited invasion in 2014 did little to disabuse the west of this notion. The hope was always that Russia, once it was wealthy and integrated with Europe, would become a member of the “European community,” such that Russia invading its neighbors would be as unthinkable as France invading Belgium. The war in Ukraine should give pause to those who had put faith in this system. Though this vision is not completely free from some conflict: a major reason interdependent economies are assumed to support peace, after all, is that those same profitable relationships can be cut off in the event of wrongdoing, and international organizations are similarly expected to use both carrots and sticks to exert pressure and uphold norms and rules. Instead, deeply held liberal values like democracy and free trade, rather than being luxuries available only to the most secure nations, are treated as paths to a more peaceful future. This narrative is attractive to liberals because it indicates that the fundamentally zero-sum game of military power is not the only one available for conducting foreign policy. Russett and Oneal are hopeful in the work-published in the mid-1990s-that the same will hold true for former Soviet states and look forward to a similar pattern to take place in East Asia. As a result, Western Europe has been nearly completely free from interstate conflict since World War II, and the expansion of institutions like the European Union has brought with it an expanding area of generally peaceful relations between member states. They argue that in Europe, the expansion of economic interdependence has led to a broader acceptance of democracy and a growing role for international organizations. Oneal detail a theory that would move beyond pure power politics. In “International Systems: Vicious Circles and Virtuous Circles” Bruce M. Liberals often point to the supposed “Kantian triangle”-international organizations, economic interdependence, and democracy-as a self-strengthening mechanism to lower the likelihood of conflict. As an answer to the realist position that the world is anarchic and thus military might is necessary for any state to maintain its power and, by extension, independence, liberals have often answered that the world has moved beyond all that. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |