ABSTRACT
As we enter the second decade of the twenty-first century, the future is by no means assured for international liberalism. The looming spectre of climate change and the legacy of the recent recession have rendered liberal economic policies particularly unpalatable for democratic polities, whilst the continued rise of the East and South will only increase the political odds stacked against Western globalists. In what is consequently a timely defence of globalisation and free trade, Lal forcefully rejects these ‘dirigiste’ pressures in order to remind us all of the extensive benefits of economic liberalism. Economic freedoms not only brought the West vast wealth and comfort, but – where they have been allowed to operate – they have also helped to spread those goods eastwards. Capitalism's laissez-faire respect for others, moreover, underpins the world's greatest hope for peace and order, and its tendency for innovation provides the best defence against all possible environmental threats to our well-being. To succumb to the new dirigisme, Lal convincingly argues, would therefore be to renounce these benefits, to stem the global spread of wealth, and to capitulate to the destabilising forces of moral imperialism.
