INTL 3200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Capitalism, Anti-Imperialism, Openmarket

• School: University of Georgia
• Department: International Affairs
• Course: INTL 3200
• Professor: Thomas Just

Document Summary

Human nature is good, but can be led astray. Liberalism is basically optimistic about improving international politics and making it safer. It describes international politics as evolving, becoming more imbued with interdependence, cooperative, and enabling peace and security. While seeing states as the most important actors, it also highlights the importance of other actors igos, ngos, major private economic entities, and international regimes. It depicts a state"s behavior as mainly the result of the perceptions, preferences, and decisions of elites and officials, which are related to the nature of each state"s politics system. The character of international politics changes depending on the nature of its members; their objectives, and their decisions on what to do, and how to interact. Liberalism strongly supports democracy, private property, free enterprise, widespread international interactions, international cooperation, and human rights. Democracies rarely go to war with each other. Commercial or economic liberalism stresses the benefits of open-market economies and widespread international trade and investment.