Conclusions: The Fight over Freedom at Moments of Self-Determination

Abstract

This concluding chapter briefly outline the book’s significance for understanding twentieth- and twenty-first-century international history, the last hundred years’ history of self-determination, and the role of freedom in international discourse. The ‘moments’ explored in the book certainly reveal the twentieth- and twenty-first-century international centrality of the liberal-conservative idea of freedom as peace. At the same time, the radical idea of freedom as equality has been important too, at each major moment triggering the high-level re-emergence of ‘self-determination’ discourse. These conclusions indicate the implications of this examination for current debates on the evolving international security environment, human rights, state sovereignty and agency in international affairs, as well as for the meaning of freedom in international discourse.