Does economic liberalization help or hinder peacemaking?
! Economic liberalization is a term that refers to fewer regulations and government
intervention in an economy, in essence opening up the market to private entities both
foreign and domestic (Chaudhary, 2008). It is heavily linked with the political philosophy's
of Neoliberalism and modern day conservative liberalism (Harvey, 2005). Economic
liberalization includes measures such as privatisation, lower taxes, open markets, freedom
on investment on foreign capital and the more modern idea of globalisation - the process
of international integration,both politically and economically. Many countries now have
economically liberalized economies however there has been great debate as to whether
the liberalizing of an country's economy helps or hinders peacemaking both domestically
and on an international basis. This essay aims to critically evaluates both sides of the
argument and show whether economic liberalization can indeed aid peace.
! Economic liberalization is promoted by not only governments, who's economies can
benefit from investment, but also by the business sector, made up of private multi-national
companies whom themselves benefit from the opening of an economy with opportunities
for high profits and returns on investments. There is however debate about whether
business's are interested in promoting peace, whether they are naturally pro-peace or care
only about their responsibility's to shareholders. One view is that the capitalist order aren't
pro peace, with corporate sectors dependent upon states, not autonomous from them
(Selby, 2008) thus companies rely on the help of the state in bringing their products to
market and are unwilling to contest policy making issues such as international relations
and peacemaking. This can be backed up through the peace process of Israel. Israel's
economy has benefited from a move towards that of a high tech economy since 1997
(Friedman, 1999) including investment totaling over $1.5 billion from computer...