We shall first start by defining a leader as a whole. Who is a leader? Basically a leader is someone who gives directions to others, that is he or she is in charge and takes responsibility of the people being led by him or her. Hence leadership comes from leader meaning the act of portraying the qualities and role of a leader. Leaders tend to be more of serving the people rather than commanding as many may think. They show qualities such as being caring, focused, committed and have a high sense of integrity including many other qualities. With that then we can relate Leadership to Liberalism.
Liberalism has been defined by Crawford (2000) as “the visualization and pursuit of political schemes which have no obvious connection to the world as presently constituted, since the world as presently constituted may well be in the process of unfolding change”. Basically the Liberalist never sees the world as being fully “real”. In short, Liberalism contrasts realism in that it sees the world can relate through forums and settings which if set in place well, then they would be effective. As liberalism tends to focus on globalization and relations amongst states, realism tends to focus on states as individuals. The realists tend to believe that the world is real in that everyone for himself God for us all. With that knowledge now then, one can look at leadership and foreign policy in terms of the Liberal and realist views discussing the role of a leader influencing foreign policy and try and use concrete examples.
We shall start by looking at the United States of America. An example of an incident is the 1973 oil crisis that occurred in the US during President Jimmy Carter’s time. Arab oil producers during this time had decided to cut off ex...
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• Robert M.A (2000). Idealism and Realism in International Relations. New York: Routledge
• Joseph S.N (2004). Power in the Global Information Age. New York: Routledge
• Femia, J., Korosenyi, A. & Slomp, G. (2009). Political leadership in Liberal and Democratic Theory. London: Imprint Academic.
• Greg, M. 2013/10/15. The 1973 Arab oil embargo, the old rules no longer apply. http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels//
• Joseph, N. (2013, May). Do Presidents Really Steer Foreign Policy? They can—but mainly by doing things other than what we want and expect from them.
• Juckes, Tim (1995). Opposition in South Africa: The Leadership of Matthews, Nelson Mandela, and Stephen Biko . Westport: Praeger Publishers.
• G. John Ikenberry(2013, May). Anglo-America and Its Discontents; Sinicization and the Rise of China. New Jersey: Princeton University.
Liberalism is an ideology which advocates equality of opportunity for all within the framework of a system of laws. It includes a belief in government as an institution whose primary function is to define and enforce the laws. Furthermore, a Constitution, must be developed not solely by one ruler but by representatives of the elite groups. Therefore, liberalism invariably involves a belief in the need for legislative bodies which represent the influential groups. The Constitution then defines ...
Michael Klare's Blood and Oil Michael Klare has written an interesting and very relevant book, dealing as it does with the politics of oil, US foreign policy, the Middle East, and the causes of terrorism. He writes with a clear purpose and that is to argue that America's "securitization" of oil and its willingness to use military force in order to secure its supplies of oil have been a major mistake. His main argument is that ever since the meeting on the Suez Canal in February 1945 between Ibn Saud, King of Saudi Arabia, and President Roosevelt, that America has supported despotic regimes in the Middle East in exchange for guarantees of oil supply, and that this is a deal, which undermines American commitment to and support for democracy and freedom. Furthermore, Klare believes that unless American policies change dramatically, there is likely to be an increase in conflict over oil, as countries such as China, which is dependent on imported oil (like the U.S.), attempt to secure their own oil supplies. Oil is a finite resource, which will be in increasingly short supply over the next few years, and production may now be near its "peak." In short, he believes that America must act now to move to a post-oil economy, taking exceptional measures to reduce the use of petroleum by motor vehicles and to introduce alternative fuels. ...
Political ideas change and adapt their perceptions of the social and political world through the years to cope with all changing aspects of life. Liberalism is no different. It is these changes that allow the idea to maintain its identity. Sometimes it is hard for some political ideas to adapt and change for instance the divine monarchists. Liberalism goes back at least 300years; this means that it has had to change a great deal, the ideas behind the ideology have remained the same though. Liberalism started attacking the monarchy in Britain but soon moved on to social change. This relates back to the heart of liberalism, the concept of the individual. This can be difficult because ‘man is born free, but everywhere in chains’ (- Jean-Jaques Rousseau). Liberalism was a political idea adopted by many countries during the 19th and 20th century and has been the source of many economic and social policies. Liberalism believes that each person should be free to act as they wish, it also believes that each individual deserves respect no matter of race, religion, sexual preference, or social status. Most liberals believe that the government is detrimental to liberalism’s beliefs because it does not allow everyone to be an individual since laws are in place to limit freedom. John Locke advocated this when he attacked the government saying ‘no government allows absolute liberty”. This is true because if no laws were in place then absolute liberty would soon be replaced by anarchy. Liberalism not only influenced equality but it was the basic idea behind the United States of America constitution. This was easy for the American governments to adopt because unlike other countries, it did not have to contend with aristocratic traditions and institutions.
Realism can be described as a theoretical approach used to analyze all international relations as the relation of states engaged in power (Baylis, Owens, Smith, 100). Although realism cannot accommodate non-state actors within its analysis. There are three types of realism which include classical (human
What exactly is liberalism? According to Sidlow (2013), liberalism is the belief that "big government" is necessary for the promotion of the common good (p.16). Without government action, many social and economic outcomes for many people would turn out badly. In other words, without government intervention, many children of poor individuals would never have access to health care in the first few critical years of life and may not get enough food to eat. Liberalism is the belief that social progress can be obtained by putting into action laws and reform rather that upheaval. It is a policy based on the rights of the individual. The accustomed view of liberals was freedom from tradition, and freedom to practice new policies and institutions. Liberals advocate change, Conservatives avoid it.
Presidential power can be viewed in terms of Domestic and Foreign affairs. This chapter discusses how the presiden’ts normal problem with domestic policy is to get congressional support for the programs he prefers, while in foreign affairs he can almost always get support for policies that he believes will protect the nation. The president soon discovers that he has more policy preference in domestic matters than in foreign policy.
In foreign policy, decision making is guided by different a leader that is from presidents, cabinets, parliaments and groups such as communist party of Soviet Union and the standing committee of the communist party of china and Central Intelligence Agency of USA. One cannot run away from the fact that a leader’s personality can affect foreign policy. Maoz and Shayer believe that one cannot underrate or ignore the role of personality in decision making as it plays a huge role. By examining ones foreign policy, we can understand foreign policy better (Jensen, 1982). If a leader is aggressive then there are certain traits he will exhibit such as paranoia, manipulation, thirst for power high intensity of nationalism, (Hermann, 1980). Hitler was one leader who led to world war when he challenged the treaty of Versailles by adopting an aggressive foreign policy. The opposite is true for a mild leader for example George Washington who told Americans to avoid entrapping alliances.
Nye, Jr., Joseph S. “Hard and Soft Power in American Foreign Policy.” In Paradox of American Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. 4-17. Print.
Liberalism is a political ideology that was founded on the basis of equality and liberty. According to Liberalism, life, liberty, and property are rights people are born with and they should not be taken away. In Liberia, the main political party is the Unity Party which is a liberal party that focuses on economic Liberalism. In South Africa, the Democratic Alliance is a liberal party that wants an open opportunity society. Although these two nations are faced with many issues involving the liberty of their citizens, they hope to better their country through the ideology of Liberalism.
In conclusion realist and liberalist theories provide contrasting views on goals and instruments of international affairs. Each theory offers reasons why state and people behave the way they do when confronted with questions such as power, anarchy, state interests and the cause of war. Realists have a pessimistic view about human nature and they see international relations as driven by a states self preservation and suggest that the primary objective of every state is to promote its national interest and that power is gained through war or the threat of military action. Liberalism on the other hand has an optimistic view about human nature and focuses on democracy and individual rights and that economic independence is achieved through cooperation among states and power is gained through lasting alliances and state interdependence.
The liberalism and the realism approaches the international relations from very different perspective, and even though many of its views contrast from each other, the ...
The ideology of power and leadership is defined in many different ways throughout history. The generalization has a common definition but each individual aspect is vastly different for each individual.
Hargrove, Erwin C. Presidential Leadership: Personality and Political Style. New York: Macmillan, 1966. Questia. Web. 25 Mar. 2010.
"Oil Embargo, 1973–1974 - 1969–1976 - Milestones - Office of the Historian." Oil Embargo, 1973–1974. U.S. State Department, 31 Oct. 2013. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.
Liberalism and democracy are closely tied together in international politics. They have a central bond which brings out the notion of democratic peace. Today much of Latin America and the European Union practices democracy. The chances of these nations getting into an armed conflict are very scarce in today’s standards. Liberalism promotes the idea of human security and equality and democracy reinforces that idea into the political framework of governing bodies and their higher authorities. Liberalism leads to democracy which promotes democratic peace preventing conflict between nations. This article will look at how liberalism leads to democratic peace through the process of creating democracy.