ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes the importance of a classical-style civic virtue that comes out in full force in Thomas Hobbes’ Discourses, where yet discussions of things international are only seen as important when they directly influence the nature of domestic polity. While Hobbes' notions of human nature and extra-social conflict inform much of post-Second World War realist thought in International Relations, his concerns are not with the international sphere, but rather with the proper government of commonwealth. Some American school realists have claimed to be able to see a cyclical pattern of the rise and fall of great powers, with all the implications this has for the level of stability in the international system. Liberalism, and especially liberal internationalism, is part of the Enlightenment. Liberalism, while interpreting the Enlightenment as a movement for political emancipation, also interpreted freedom as an attribute of the individual.