Interventions in foreign countries to promote liberal objectives are bound to fail due to the internal contradictions within liberalism itself

Should the EU and the United States intervene in sovereign states such as Iraq to promote democracy, free trade and other liberal objectives? Beate Jahn writes that this form of intervention, often termed ‘liberal internationalism’, has at best produced mixed results in states where it has been pursued. She argues that while these failures have typically been explained in terms of inadequate policy design or implementation, the real reason they fail is that the doctrine of liberalism itself contains a number of internal contradictions. Chief among these are that liberal states promote free trade abroad while retaining protectionism at home, and that liberal states advocate economic policies which are against the interests of the populations in foreign countries – thereby contradicting the promotion of democracy.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Iraq: Another humanitarian crisis in the Middle East http://www.europeansources.info/record/statement-iraq-another-humanitarian-crisis-in-the-middle-east/

ESO: Background information: EU response to Iraq's degenerating situation http://www.europeansources.info/record/eu-response-to-iraqs-degenerating-situation/

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