Liberal Internationalism and the Decline of the State: The Thought of Richard Cobden, David Mitrany, and Kenichi Ohmae (The Palgrave Macmillan History of International Thought)
Language: English
Pages: 226
ISBN: 1349529885
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
This book provides a critical analysis of the liberal ideas of the decline of the state through a historical comparison. It takes special note of the implications of state failure to control economic growth and market exigencies for international relations. The book is divided into three sections. The first analyzes Cobden, Mitrany, and Ohmae's empirical claims, the second looks at their normative judgements and the third looks at their predictive assertions. It concludes that the three primarily propose normative arguments for less state involvement in economic and international relations but conceal them in empirical and predictive assertions. The liberal idea of the decline of the state is more of an ideological statement in response to political, social, and economic trends than an objective observation of an empirically verifiable fact.
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authoritative (as the case may be) bodies have arisen in response to felt needs and occupy The Obsolete International System ● 71 themselves with trying to solve international problems within a particular issue area. For Mitrany, they represent initial steps toward a new order beyond the nation-state. Another element that illustrates the actual decline of the nation-state is that as a result of interdependence and the new social life the old “sense of security of a physical territory, to be
“Internationally,” Mitrany claims, “it is no longer a question of defining relations between states but of merging them.”38 In response to contemporary proposals for international federalism—which Mitrany associates with overambitious attempts at establishing world government through written political constitutions—“The most one could hope for during the period of transition is that national governments should act as willing agencies of the incipient international authority.”39 The quotations
responsibility.”54 However, it is only Mitrany’s choice of a concept such as “seeds” that ultimately lures his reader into believing that feelings of world community will grow. The extent to which people want to cooperate may, in fact, remain static; some international cooperation on international security and economics, yes, but enough to guarantee peace and eradicate poverty, unfortunately not. In short, Mitrany fails to outline realistic ways in 156 ● Liberal Internationalism which
because it is against the course of nature and providence for things to worsen. Technological advances and people’s growing intelligence are more or less irreversible. In addition, material demands for the most practical and efficient solutions, as well as moral requirements for equality and individual opportunity compel the transformation of the state and the system of nation-states. However, to take the possibility that an 168 ● Liberal Internationalism appeal to reason and interest in
unnecessary wars, it is irrevocably coming closer to the date when it has become an anachronism. Mitrany also believes that he lives at a historical turning point. It is an era of socialism and mass democracy. The upheavals of the two world wars signal the shortcomings of the previous century. Nineteenth-century ideals tried both to keep nations peacefully apart by applying the principle of national self-determination at the same time as they tried to tie them together through written pacts.