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Idealism in international relations

Idealism in the foreign policy context holds that a nation-state should make its internal political philosophy the goal of its conduct and rhetoric in international affairs. For example, an idealist might believe that ending poverty at home should be coupled with tackling poverty abroad. Both within and outside of the United States, American president Woodrow Wilson is widely considered an early advocate of idealism and codifier of its practical meaning; specific actions cited include the issuing of the famous "Fourteen Points".

For the broader sense of "idealism" in terms of ethical philosophy, see moral idealism.

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Katana VentraIP

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Wilson's idealism was a precursor to liberal international relations theory, the particular set of viewpoints arising amongst the so-called "institution builders" after World War II. Organizations that came about as a direct result of the war's outcome include the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations (UN) among others.


In the broader, philosophical sense, this internationally minded viewpoint can be thought of as an extension of the moral idealism advocated by different thinkers during and after the "Age of Enlightenment". That particular era involved multiple prominent individuals promoting a general sense of benevolence and government based upon strong personal character, with international conflict criticized as against the principles of reason.


More generally, academic Michael W. Doyle has described idealism as based on the belief that other nations' stated positive intentions can be relied on, whereas realism holds that said intentions are in the long run subject to the security dilemma described by thinker John H. Herz. Although realism in the context of foreign affairs is traditionally seen as the opposite of idealism, numerous scholars and individual leaders in charge of different nations have sought to synthesize the two schools of thought.


Scholar Hedley Bull has written:

Martin Ceadel, Semi-detached Idealists: the British peace movement and international relations, 1854–1945, 2000.

Tim Dunne, Michael Cox, Ken Booth (eds), The Eighty Years' Crisis: International Relations 1919–1999, Cambridge University Press, 1999.

F. H. (Sir Harry) Hinsley, Power and the Pursuit of Peace, Cambridge University Press, 1967.

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Ethical idealism

Liberal internationalism

""

New world order

Straussian idealism

Realism (international relations)

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David Long, Towards a New Liberal Internationalism: The International Theory of J.A. Hobson, Cambridge University Press, 1996.

David Long and Peter Wilson (eds), Thinkers of the Twenty Years' Crisis: Inter-War Idealism Reassessed, Oxford University Press, 1995.

John Maynard Keynes and International Relations: Economic Paths to War and Peace, Oxford University Press, 2006.

Donald Markwell

(1986), 'Sir Alfred Zimmern Revisited: Fifty Years On', Review of International Studies.

Donald Markwell

'Sir Alfred Eckhard Zimmern', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004.

Donald Markwell

Norman Angell and the Futility of War: Peace and the Public Mind, London, Macmillan, 1986.

J. D. B. Miller

Peter Wilson, The International Thought of : A Study in Twentieth Century Idealism, 2003.

Leonard Woolf