Synopses & Reviews
Unlike other studies of democratization and economic reform, this volume covers both economic and political liberalization in nine essays by scholars who illuminate a new agenda in international relations.
The book takes as its subject the global wave of political liberalization that has arisen since the mid-1970s and the even wider trend toward liberal economic policies in the 1980s. Filling the gap left by neorealism, which has failed to address such upheavals as the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Liberalization and Foreign Policy discusses how the foreign policy effects of liberalization support new democratic regimes and help launch economic reforms-but do not guarantee full democratization.
The authors discuss how democracies engage in foreign policies that are vastly different from those of other regimes; the comparison of transitional or liberalizing democracies in Spain, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa to established democracies like the United States; the noteworthy outcome of economic liberalization; and the strategies of collaboration within international institutions such as the European Community and NATO.