Idealism in International Relations

In general parlance on international matters, idealism is a term applied to any idea, goal, or practice considered to be impractical. Thus, eradicating nuclear weapons is considered idealistic, as is substituting open for secret diplomacy, entrusting international security to the United Nations, creating an African Union on the model of the European Union, or the global eradication of poverty and injustice. The bases of such judgments are rarely made explicit, but they usually rest on a pessimistic reading of human nature along with a historical judgment on the difficulty of peaceably achieving radical change in world affairs.

In the professional study of international relations (IR), idealism is generally employed in two ways: one broad, one narrow. The broad understanding sees idealism as a perennial doctrine or disposition toward world affairs that can be witnessed in all historical periods where independent political communities exist in a condition of anarchy—that is, in the absence of central government. Idealism is an optimistic doctrine that seeks to transcend the international anarchy, and create a more cosmopolitan and harmonious world order. The narrow understanding sees idealism as intimately tied to the interwar period (1919–1939). It is a doctrine that dominated the first phase of IR theorizing, emphasizing the growing interdependence and unity of humankind, and bound up with the experiment in internationalism that was the League of Nations. It received a visceral attack in E. H. Carr's The Twenty Years' Crisis (1939).

There is no agreed definition of idealism. The term is often employed in a rhetorical way, particularly by realist thinkers, to discredit radical or reformist ideas they dislike. As a consequence, various approaches and bodies of thought—cosmopolitanism, internationalism, liberalism—have frequently been lumped together and labeled idealism despite considerable differences between and diversity within them.

According to most accounts, idealists emphasize the power of reason to overcome prejudice and counteract the machinations of sinister forces. They believe that the spread of education and democracy—including increasing democratic control of foreign policy—will empower world public opinion, and make it a powerful force that no government can resist. Idealists view war as a disease of the international body politic, contrary to the interests of all except a few special interests and unrepresentative governments. Arms manufacturers and merchants have frequently been targets of their wrath. Left-internationalists have also attacked large business corporations for their aggressive pursuit of profit and disregard of general human welfare. Idealists emphasize the importance of universal bodies such as the League of Nations and the United Nations in galvanizing and organizing world public opinion. Through such means, they contend, it will be possible to eliminate crude power from international relations, substituting research, reason, and discussion in place of national armies and navies. Importantly, [Page 332]idealists tend to stress the existence of a natural harmony of interests between all peoples underlying the superficially conflicting interests of their states or governments. Although accepting that the different peoples exhibit different codes of behavior, cultural norms, values, habits, and tastes, idealists contend that human beings are fundamentally uniform. Regardless of ethnic, social, cultural, and religious background, all human beings desire the same things in terms of security, welfare, recognition, and respect. All are bound by a common morality with its bedrock in basic human rights and the Kantian principle that human beings should be respected as ends in themselves and never treated as mere means. Many idealists share Guiseppe Mazzini's belief that there is no essential incompatibility between nationalism and internationalism. There is a natural division of labor between nations. Each nation has its special task to perform, its special contribution to make to the well-being of humanity. If all nations were to act in this spirit, international harmony would prevail. This doctrine provided the philosophical basis for U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's campaign to put national self-determination at the heart of the 1919 peace settlement.

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