Liberalism är en av de större teoretiska skolorna inom studiet av IR (Internationella Relationer). De filosofer som främst ses som liberalismens ”fäder” är: Immanuel Kant, John Lock, Adman Smith och John Stuart Mills.
Dessa filosofer delar uppfattningen att människan är en rationell varelse, vilket möjliggör en fredlig samlevnad (internationellt).
I följande klipp finner du en kortare presentation av Liberalismen inom studiet av Internationell Relationer
"Liberalism, political doctrine that takes protecting and enhancing the freedom of the individual to be the central problem of politics. Liberals typically believe that government is necessary to protect individuals from being harmed by others; but they also recognize that government itself can pose a threat to liberty. As the revolutionary American pamphleteer Thomas Paine expressed it in “Common Sense
” (1776), government is at best “a necessary evil.” Laws, judges, and police are needed to secure the individual’s life and liberty, but their coercive power may also be turned against him. The problem, then, is to devise a system that gives government the power necessary to protect individual liberty but also prevents those who govern from abusing that power."- Encyclopedia Britannica, Liberalsim; Politics
http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/339173/liberalism
