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Containing the Kantian revolutions: a theoretical analysis of the neo-conservative critique of global liberal governance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2010

JEAN-FRANÇOIS DROLET
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Abstract

This article examines the neo-conservative critique of global liberal governance. It provides a theoretically oriented assessment of the neo-conservative case against international law and human rights regimes, and draws out the main political and ethical implications for American democracy and American foreign policy. It is argued that the neo-conservative critique of global governance rests upon an interpretation of the normative order that weaves together democracy, individual rights and national autonomy through a volatile identity politics which is fundamentally at odds with both the pluralist character of ‘Westphalian diplomacy’ and the universal order of rights envisaged by advocates of global governance. More than just the policy autonomy of the US, what is really at stakes in those debates for neo-conservatives is the whole structure of cultural and socio-economic interests that is tied to the substantive interpretation of democracy upon which their domestic commitments to neo-liberal capitalism and liberal freedoms are predicated.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , July 2010 , pp. 533 - 560
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 2010

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References

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75 Fonte, ‘Global Governance’, p. 5. In Who Are We? The Challenge to American National Identity (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004), Samuel Huntington warns that American liberalism has fallen under the spell of ‘de-nationalized elites’ who are out to dismantle the American creed through anti-assimilation, multilingual and multicultural policies and legislations.

76 James Ceasar, ‘Multiculturalism and American Democracy’, and MarcPlattner, , ‘Liberalism, Universalism, and Multiculturalism’, in Melzer, A. M., Weinberger, J. and Zinman, R. (eds), Multiculturalism and American Democracy (Kansas City: University of Kansas Press, 1998)Google Scholar ; Wattenberg, Ben, ‘Melt, Melting, Melted’, Washington Post (15 March 2001)Google Scholar , available at: {http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.12609/pub_detail.asp} accessed 3 December 2007; John Fonte, ‘Dual Allegiance: A Challenge to Immigration Reform and Patriotic Assimilation’, Centre for Immigration Studies, Washington (2005), {http://www.cis.org/articles/2005/back1205.html} accessed 3 May 2007; MacDonald, Heather, Hanson, Victor Davis and Malanga, Steven, The Immigration Solution: A Better Plan Than Today's, with introduction by Myron Magnet (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2007)Google Scholar .

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79 Fukuyama, ‘Does the West Still Exist?’, pp. 145–6.

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85 Ceasar, ‘The Great Divide’, pp. 38–9. Emphasis in original.

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88 For different treatments of this point in the more specific context of the Iraq War see Jacques Rancière, ‘Prisoners of the Infinite’, Counterpunch (30 April 2002), {http://www.counterpunch.org/ranciere0430.html} accessed 12 October 2002; Balibar, Étienne, L'Europe. L'Amérique, la guerre (Paris: La Découverte, 2003), pp. 114–124Google Scholar ; Wrange, Pål, ‘Of Power and Justice’, German Law Journal, 4:9 (2003), pp. 936–962Google Scholar ; Huysmans, Jef, ‘International Politics of Insecurity: Normativity, Inwardness, and the Exception’, Security Dialogue, 37 (2006), pp. 11–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

89 Kagan, ‘A Tougher War for the US is One of Legitimacy’.

90 Kagan, Of Paradise and Power, pp. 130–1.

91 Kagan, Robert, ‘Inside the Limo’, The New Republic (10 April 2000)Google Scholar . See also Wolfowitz, Paul, ‘Think Again – Realism’, Foreign Policy (September 2009)Google Scholar , {http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/08/17/think_again_realism} accessed 6 October 2009; Charles Krauthammer, Democratic Realism: An American Foreign Policy for a Unipolar World, American Enterprise Institute's Irving Kristol Lecture, Washington (12 February 2004), {http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.19912,filter.all/pub_detail.asp} accessed 8 February 2006; Williams, Michael C., ‘What is the National Interest? The Neoconservative Challenge in IR Theory’, European Journal of International Relations, 11/3 (2005), pp. 307–335CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Drolet, ‘A Liberalism Betrayed?’.

92 For a good example see Emery, Noemie, ‘Evil Under the Sun: Barack Obama and American Exceptionalism’, Weekly Standard, 14:8 (11 March 2008)Google Scholar , {http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/745kqxmy.asp} accessed 14 March 2008.

93 Kant, Immanuel, ‘Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch’, in Kant, I., Political Writings, (ed.), Reiss, H.S. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 93–125Google Scholar .

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95 Balibar, L'Europe, L'Amérique, p. 118. Author's translation.

96 Cohen, Jean L., ‘Whose Sovereignty? Empire Versus International Law’, Ethics and International Affairs, 18:3 (2004), p. 14CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

97 Balibar, L'Europe, L'Amérique, p. 118.

98 Owens, ‘Beyond Strauss’, p. 274. Emphasis added.