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Sociological Liberalism

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Sociological Liberalism
• IR as not only about state-state relations,
but also about transnational relations
• Transnational relations – relations
between people, groups, and
organizations belonging to different
countries
• Transnational relations – considered
to be an increasingly important
aspect of international relations
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Sociological Liberalism
James Rosenau:
• Transnationalism - the processes whereby
international relations conducted by
governments have been supplemented by
relations among private individuals,
groups, and societies that can and do
have important consequences for the
course of events’

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Sociological Liberalism
• Focus on transnational relations - return to
an old theme in liberal thinking > the
notion that relations between people are
more cooperative and more supportive of
peace than are relations between national
governments

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Sociological Liberalism
Karl Deutsch (a leading figure in
transnationalism in the 1950s):
• A high degree of transnational ties
between societies leads to peaceful
relations that amount to more than the
mere absence of war > ‘security
community’

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Sociological Liberalism
Karl Deutsch (a leading figure in
transnationalism in the 1950s):
• Security community - ‘a group of people
which has become ‘integrated’
• Integration – achievement of a ‘sense of
community’ > people have come to agree
that their conflicts and problems can be
resolved ‘without resort to large-scale
physical force’
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Sociological Liberalism
Karl Deutsch (a leading figure in
transnationalism in the 1950s):
• Such a security community has emerged
among the Western countries in the North
Atlantic area

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Sociological Liberalism
Karl Deutsch (a leading figure in
transnationalism in the 1950s):
• Conditions conducive to the emergence of
security communities:
1.increased social communication
2.greater mobility of persons
3.stronger economic ties
4.a wider range of mutual human
transactions.
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Sociological Liberalism
John Burton in world society (1972)
• ‘Cobweb model’ of transnational
relationships
• Any nation-state consists of many different
groups of people that have different
types of external tie and different types of
interest: religious groups, business
groups, labour groups, and so on

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Sociological Liberalism
John Burton in World Society (1972)
• Cobweb model - points to a world driven
more by mutually beneficial cooperation
than by antagonistic conflict
• Cobweb model - builds on an
earlier liberal idea about the beneficial
effects of cross-cutting or overlapping
group memberships

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Sociological Liberalism

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Sociological Liberalism
• James Rosenau –further developed the
sociological liberal approach to
transnational relations by focusing on
transnational relations at the macro level
of human populations, in addition to those
conducted at the micro level by individuals

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Sociological Liberalism
James Rosenau:
• Individual transactions have important
implications and consequences for global
affairs
• A profound transformation of the
international system is underway

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Sociological Liberalism
James Rosenau:
• A new ‘multi-centric world has emerged
that is composed of diverse “sovereignty-
free” collectivities which exist apart from
and in competition with the state-centric
world of “sovereignty-bound” actors’
• An increasingly pluralist world,
characterized by transnational networks of
individuals and groups, will be more
peaceful
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Sociological Liberalism

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Sociological Liberalism

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Sociological Liberalism
• Phil Cerny (2010):
• He underlines the many ways in which the
distinction between ‘domestic’ and
‘international’ is being challenged, leading
to a transformation of the state
• Where these processes will
eventually lead remains uncertain

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Sociological Liberalism
• Phil Cerny (2010):
• He outlines 4 different major scenarios,
ranging from ‘rosy’ and cooperative
towards ‘hegemonic’ and more conflict-
prone

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Sociological Liberalism

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Sociological Liberalism in Summary:

• IR is not only a study of relations
between national governments; IR scholars also
study relations between private individuals,
groups, and societies.
• Overlapping interdependent relations between
people are bound to be more cooperative than
relations between states because states are
exclusive and, their interests do not overlap and
cross-cut.
• A world with a large number of transnational
networks will thus be more peaceful.
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Sociological Liberalism Web Links:

• 4.09. In this essay, Riva Kastoryano discusses
“The Reach of Transnationalism”.
http://www.ssrc.org/sept11/essays/kastoryano.htm
• 4.10. University of Chicago’s Transnationalism
Project.
http://transnationalism.uchicago.edu/
• 4.11. Information and analysis about transnational
NGOs in global policy-making.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/ngos/

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Sociological Liberalism Web Links:

• 4.12. “NATO as a Factor of Security Community
Building: Enlargement and Democratization in
Central and Eastern Europe”.
http://www.nato.int/acad/fellow/99-01/bjola.pdf
• 4.13. Emanuel Adler and Beverly Crawford’s
paper on the constitution of security communities
through socialization processes and communities
of practice.
http://ies.berkeley.edu/research/MeditAdlerCrawford.pdf
• 4.14. The International Journal of Peace Studies’.
Issue about John Burton’s works.
http://www.gmu.edu/academic/ijps/vol6_1/cover6_1.htm
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