ABSTRACT
If it is difficult to tease the ecological implications of realism out of their respective hiding places, liberal perspectives on human affairs appear relatively open to ecological assessments. Liberalism is the historical byproduct of the Enlightenment; as a worldview, it is committed to the rational harnessing of nature in the quest for human freedom. Though human freedom is associated with citizen relations vis-a-vis the state, it is also closely linked with economic growth, the ability to prosper and escape the confines of poverty and reliance on nature. Nowhere else is the link between IR theory and utilitarianism as clear and forceful. Further, the liberal ethic would reject the authoritarian ecological thought introduced in Chapter 2 on the grounds of the latter’s anti-individualistic orientation. Radical ecological thought would also receive scant praise from most liberal thinkers, though there may be interesting exceptions here related to a libertarian ideology and ecoanarchism on the one hand, and variants of welfare liberalism and ecosocialism on the other.
