Abstract
The current international context is very complex. The 21st century is characterized by an entanglement of complex relations and inter-dependence between States. In the international studies, we often say that the 21st century began when the Soviet Union disappeared. Indeed, during the Cold War years, the international relations among the Western countries escalated and when the Cold War ended by the fall of the Soviet Union, the liberalism blossomed and reached a peak.
During this period, there were for a start several critics – mainly by supporters of the communism – about the liberalism which was considered as a form of Western Imperialism. The liberalism was theorized by some philosophers during the Enlightenment, particularly by John Locke or Immanuel Kant. According to Locke, each human has several natural rights (to life, of liberty, of property, etc) and any governments or political power must not violate them (because of the theory of the social contract). In the early 21st century a “neoliberalism” defends mainly an “open international political economy, with rules and institutions based on state sovereignty, provides incentives for international cooperation and may even affect the internal constitutions of states in ways that promote peace” (Keohane R, 2004, p.45).
So today, liberalism emphasizes the existence of an international society with common habits and practices that enable growing cooperation and collective management of international politics. Liberals tend to believe that world politics is basically evolving towards tolerance and peace because these cooperative developments lead to “reducing conflict, insecurity, and warfare without sacrificing national sovereignty” (Morgan P, 2010, p.35).
