ABSTRACT
Joseph Schumpeter's Sociology of Imperialisms, which was published in 1919, makes a coherent and sustained argument concerning the pacifying effects of liberal institutions and principles. The discrepancy between the warlike history of liberal states and Schumpeter's pacifistic expectations highlights some extreme assumptions. Liberal states invade weak nonliberals states and display exceptional degrees of distrust in their dealings with powerful nonliberal states. The historical liberal legacy is laden with popular wars fought to promote freedom, protect private property, or support liberal allies against nonliberal enemies. Immanuel Kant's liberal internationalism, Macniaveui's liberal imperialism, and Schumpeter's liberal pacifism rest on fundamentally different views on the nature of humans, the state, and international relations. Internationally, free speech and the effective communication of accurate conceptions of the political life of foreign peoples are essential to establish and preserve the understanding on which the guarantee of respect depends.
