Political idealism as one of the contemporary currents in the theory of international relations came into being at the beginning of the twentieth century. The main theses which are typical for political idealism are:
- 1.
There is rather a convergence of states’ interests than their divergence on supranational level.
- 2.
Foreign policy should remain in agreement with the catalogue of moral values.
- 3.
International law and its observance is the most effective instrument of achieving durable peace.
- 4.
International organizations, apart from international law and world public opinion, should be the main instrument of stabilization of the global politics.
Supporters of political idealism believe in at least one of the points mentioned above.
Historically, the rise of political idealism was closely related to the outbreak of the World War I – the first war ever waged on global scale. In order to mobilize all available forces against dominating (from the nineteenth century) militaristic and...
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Authors and Affiliations
Department of Philosophy and Sociology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Rafał Wonicki
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Editors and Affiliations
Department of Philosophy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Deen K. Chatterjee
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© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.