ABSTRACT
IR scholars often associate Adam Smith with liberal theories of market freedom, joint gains and cooperation (see Gilpin 1987, 27–9). Rather than turning to Smith’s texts directly, except for stray references to the invisible hand, liberal IPE finds greater inspiration in neoclassical economics. 2 Liberal IPE embraces economists as a standard for social scientific practice and as an analytical model for understanding international relations (Cohen 2009, 1, 17–20). With the “market” serving as “a powerful metaphor,” scholars presume a “world of atomized, self-seeking egoistic individuals” (perhaps states) to explain how international institutions “derive from voluntary agreements among juridically equal actors” (Krasner 1983, 6–7, 11). We can imagine, then, a “long term harmony of interests” because, as Gilpin (1987, 30–1) explains, “trade and economic interdependence are a source of peaceful relations among nations.”
