Liberalism, Liberal States and Military Forces

The US administration recently asserted that it was supporting liberal values through the deployment of military force to ‘liberate’ Iraq. This paper explores one aspect of the topical theme of liberalism and the use of force through a philosophical exercise concerning the means used to attain such ends. Drawing on the liberal political tradition, this paper puts forward an ideal type, a benchmark as it were, for militaries and their deployment by governments avowedly in pursuit of liberal agendas. This ideal type is constructed in two sections: operationalization and form. This paper therefore begins to provide a mechanism, some guidelines or talking points, for articulating and evaluating just how well liberal states may or may not be living up to their proclaimed lofty ideals in the very real world of military force and military forces at a time when a fundamental ‘transformation’ of defence is claimed to be a pressing priority

Epistemology · Ideal (ethics · Law and economics · Liberal arts education · Liberal education · Liberalism · Operationalization · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Software deployment · Theme (computing · Computer Science · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Law · Military History and Strategy · Philosophy · War, Ethics, and Justification