Out of the many different international relations theories we have learned about so far, I agree more with liberalism than with the alternatives. Or, uh, alternative, because the only one we have learned about besides liberalism is realism. Whoops. I’m just putting that disclaimer out there so that nobody says “oh, but Michael, I thought you said you were a liberal!”.
I would like to take this time to respond to a point made by my good friend Andrew Daly. He said that, given a person with idealistic beliefs, and, then, given a gun pointed at said person, all you will see is a person, for their idealistic beliefs will be thrown out the window at the threat of personal safety. I feel as though he is arguing against liberal international relations theory by saying: “Well, Liberalism is wrong, because security!!”, when that is the very definition of Realism – security is sacrosanct. You can’t say “No, Liberalism is wrong because Realism is right” no more than you can say “No, apples are not good, because oranges are.”
Besides, the analogy he uses – gun at head – is false. Take, for example, Harmodius and Aristogeiton. They were lovers in Greece ca. 500 B.C. Harmodius was the eromenos of Aristogeiton – meaning that Aristogeiton, the older, held claim over Harmodius – the latter almost being the former’s property, as Thucydides put it. The tyrant of the day was Hippias; when his playboy, money-flaunting, universally-hated brother Hipparchus hit on Harmodius, he was rejected. So, as one does when these sorts of things occur, Hipparchus publically accused Harmodius of not being a virgin, which was apparently a masssssive insult at the time, as it caused Harmodius and Aristogeiton to try and kill Hippias and Hipparchus to revenge the blight done onto Harmodius’ family’s name. They were only able to kill Hipparchus; Harmodius was killed, and Aristogeiton captured and tortured.
To quote Wikipedia, that most reliable of sources: “During his ordeal, personally overseen by Hippias, he feigned willingness to betray his co-conspirators, claiming only Hippias' handshake as guarantee of safety. Upon receiving the tyrant's hand he is reputed to have berated him for shaking the hand of his own brother's murderer, upon which the tyrant wheeled and struck him down on the spot.”
Obviously, Aristogeiton was a badass, and did not give up his ideals to the barrel of a gun.