Abstract

For more than two centuries, liberal countries have tended to maintain peaceful relations with each other. Liberal democracies are each other’s natural allies. They tend to respect and accommodate other democratic countries and negotiate rather than escalate their inter-liberal disputes. This provides a positive incentive to try to preserve and expand the liberal zone of peace. And that is the fundamental postulate of liberal foreign policy. But liberalism has also proved to be a dangerous guide to foreign policy, often exacerbating tensions with non-liberal states. Expanding liberalism can sometimes provoke danger and war. This chapter thus addresses a large and perplexing foreign policy question central to all democracies: Can the liberal peace be effectively preserved and expanded without provoking unnecessary danger and inflicting unnecessary harm? The chapter also addresses how scholars have analysed liberalism’s effects, distinguishing three key interpretations of liberal foreign policy: individualist, commercial, and republican.