ABSTRACT
From Immanuel Kant’s vision of perpetual peace in 1795 to Woodrow Wilson’s plan for a liberal world order after World War I, classical liberal internationalism evolved as an ideology pointing to a more peaceful and harmonious international order. Based on a belief in progress, it envisages a gradual transformation of international relations, which helps promote human freedom by establishing conditions of peace, prosperity, and justice. Free trade, national self-determination, nonintervention in the internal affairs of other states, and strengthened international law are prominent themes in classical liberal internationalism. Tensions and controversies within liberal internationalism have revolved around such questions as: Does the belief in inalienable rights entail a duty to intervene? Is international progress driven by a new moral consciousness, or does it require institutional mechanisms? Does the sovereign state facilitate or impede the overarching goal of individual freedom?
