The current international context is very complex. The 21st century is characterized by an entanglement of complex relations and inter-dependence between States. In the international studies, we often say that the 21st century began when the Soviet Union disappeared. Indeed, during the Cold War years, the international relations among the Western countries escalated and when the Cold War ended by the fall of the Soviet Union, the liberalism blossomed and reached a peak.
During this period, there were for a start several critics – mainly by supporters of the communism – about the liberalism which was considered as a form of Western Imperialism. The liberalism was theorized by some philosophers during the Enlightenment, particularly by John Locke or Immanuel Kant. According to Locke, each human has several natural rights (to life, of liberty, of property, etc) and any governments or political power must not violate them (because of the theory of the social contract). In the early 21st century a “neoliberalism” defends mainly an “open international political economy, with rules and institutions based on state sovereignty, provides incentives for international cooperation and may even affect the internal constitutions of states in ways that promote peace” (Keohane R, 2004, p.45).
So today, liberalism emphasizes the existence of an international society with common habits and practices that enable growing cooperation and collective management of international politics. Liberals tend to believe that world politics is basically evolving towards tolerance and peace because these cooperative developments lead to “reducing conflict, insecurity, and warfare without sacrificing national sovereignty” (Morgan P, 2010, p.35).
[...] It is introducing another interesting issue: does it mean a new power is blooming in the world controlling all the fields of the international society? Indeed, through the process of globalization new technologies have opened up in the whole world. Everybody all around the earth start to use Internet in its own interests (searching information, e-mailing But today, with the fast development of social networks, we all have access to information coming from everywhere in real time; we can meet people outside our environment. [...]
[...] Analyze the principal characteristics of liberalism with reference to current developments in the ‘Arab spring' critically examine the view that liberalism's objectives and values are a form of western imperialism The current international context is very complex. The 21st century is characterized by an entanglement of complex relations and interdependences between States. In the international studies, we often say that the 21st century began when the Soviet Union disappeared. Indeed, during the Cold War years, the international relations among the Western countries escalated and when the Cold War ended by the fall of the Soviet Union, the liberalism blossomed and reached a peak. [...]
[...] Currently, there is a huge suppression by government by Syria against people; but the western societies do not have enough interests so they do not take any action in the country. After the events during Arab Spring the western society is blaming for its hegemony and we really can argue that liberalism is merely an expression of western imperialism. Its action was just a mean to enforce the western ideology in Middle East. Now, we cannot predict the future of liberalism, but with this example of Arab Spring we have seen a new generation grew up, with new communication means. [...]
[...] So when governments tried to learn how to use software for controlling and censoring gatherings, people talked about their expectations and took to street in protests aiming to bring down a government that they viewed as illegitimate and non-constitutional. The videos taken by cell phone during demonstrations and broadcast on YouTube have been widely transmitted by all the media in the West, so the western societies have got aware of the issue in Middle East and have begun to organize each other to assist in the fight for democracy and human rights. [...]
[...] Is the loss of sovereignty is really in favor of global security and long-standing peace? Today may the Arab Spring is precisely a response to the fast globalization. Indeed, although globalization is imposing one model in the world, it is exacerbating inequalities between states a little more at each day. These countries have been gradually integrated in the global movement of internationalization encouraging economic liberalization but because of the political system, many difficulties became apparent in societies. Middle East seemed to be politically stable and strong, so how was the surprise when the first sparks came out. [...]
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