Legal Framework for International Business

II.Actors

Liberal IR scholars do not reject the realist premise that states are important actors in the international system, but they do reject the claim that they are the only units of analysis worth studying. They argue for the need to open the supposed black box of the state, and understand that states behave differently in the international system even though they all have a similar interest in survival. This, they argue, is due to variations in regime type, and the influence of domestic actors in international politics.

In addition, liberals give a greater weight than realists do to the role by international organizations (IOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as actors in world politics. Liberals’ concern with interests and institutions at the domestic level of states lead them to also pay attention to how interests are articulated and how institutions function at the global level. In addition to the international states system, liberals are concerned with the functioning of international organizations as political institutions, which act as arenas for state interaction and interest articulation. Just as liberals are concerned with constitutional orders and the rule of law at the level of the state, they acknowledge the role that international legal institutions play in international politics, including regional and international courts. Similarly, liberals place a greater weight on the importance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in world politics than realists do. NGOs are viewed by liberals as being part of a global civil society of non-state actors and interest groups that exists in parallel to the state system. Thus, NGOs such as Amnesty International or Greenpeace represent international constituencies with interests in human rights or the environment, and play an important role in international politics in placing issues on the international agenda and in lobbying states and international organizations. Such dynamics, alongside traditional areas of realist concern, like interstate competition and power politics, are key aspects of world politics for liberals.