4 Liberalism and ecofeminism

In this section of the course, you will learn about liberal and ecofeminist approaches to International Relations. You will note that liberal approaches tend to emphasise the role that international institutions and shared values can play in helping address key global challenges. By contrast, ecofeminist approaches are more closely linked to social activism, with a subsequent focus more on grassroots movements than state-linked structures.

Activity 4

Timing: Allow approximately 30 minutes

Part 1: Liberalism theory quiz

Timing: 10 minutes

Watch the animation about liberalism in International Relations, then work through the set of flashcards, in each case choosing the one that best reflects the liberal perspective.

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Transcript: Video 7 Liberalism in International Relations

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Liberalism tries to find mutual gains between states with a focus on the role external actors play in shaping state choices. It's a positivist tradition which aims to solve the problems states face with each other. Liberals reject the realist theory that self-interested power politics is the only way to conduct international relations.

Liberalism emerged in the Enlightenment with Voltaire, John Locke, and Immanuel Kant considering how to avoid the disastrous effects of war. More recently neoliberals have investigated how international institutions changed the relationship between democracy and war.

For liberals, there are three key factors that encourage cooperation and reduce conflict between states. Democracy, war is destructive and costly. In democracies where leaders rely on popular support, there's an incentive to avoid conflict. International institutions, bodies like the UN and the EU help states resolve disputes without violence. Regular exchanges make it easier to understand each other's interests. International trade, as complex economic activity spills over borders, states and economic actors press for stable and peaceful relationships.

In the 17th century, John Locke proposed the classical liberal view that in a raw free state of nature, civil government is necessary for human rights to emerge and be maintained. His ideas were influential in the French and American revolutions. Since the 1970s, neoliberals such as Joseph Nye and Robert Keohane have built on these ideas, observing how democracies actually operate in the international system.

Democracies do fight, just not against other democracies. Liberalism's limitations come when democracies, international institutions and trade come up against a state that doesn't want to be bound into such systems. Is a damning resolution by the UN Security Council actually going to stop one state bent on invading another?

Also while many states call themselves democracies, it's not always meaningful in practice. Liberalism tries to find ways to avoid realist power politics. In doing so, it can't help but accept that power and might still matter.

Liberalism aims to create a more peaceful, stable, and inclusive world, focusing on the roles played by states, other institutions, and individuals, too.

End transcript: Video 7 Liberalism in International Relations

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Part 2: Ecofeminism theory quiz

Timing: 10 minutes

Watch the animation about ecofeminism in International Relations, then work through the set of flashcards, in each case choosing the one that best reflects the ecofeminist perspective.

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Transcript: Video 8 Ecofeminism in International Relations

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Ecofeminism is a feminist theory of international relations. It connects the destruction of the environment with the oppression of lives that are considered feminine and therefore weak. For ecofeminists, this includes not just women but also marginalised groups, such as Indigenous peoples and non-human lives too.

It's a critical theory. For ecofeminists, exploitation of the environment, women, and other marginalised peoples is caused by the supremacy of masculinity. In other words, ecofeminism connects the harms of colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchy.

Ecofeminism has close links with activism. It seeks to challenge power structures through theory and practice. It developed in the 1970s, as activists began to connect environmental crises and the feminist movement. Today, ecofeminists assert that climate change is developing due to the actions of a powerful few rather than humanity as a whole.

A key principle of ecofeminism is that patriarchal societies value masculine attributes over feminine ones. This starts with patriarchy, in which men dominate and women are subordinated. However, for ecofeminists, gender dualism stretch into all elements of society. This includes political dualisms, such as public and private, strong and weak, modern and traditional, culture and nature, and white and non-white.

Key ecofeminist thinkers, such as Vandana Shiva, Val Plumwood, and Sherilyn MacGregor, have highlighted the ways industrialisation, capitalism, and colonialism disproportionately impact both women and the environment. Ecofeminism critiques society, the economy, governance, language, and even epistemology. In fact, it could be criticised for being so wide ranging. It's difficult to operationalise.

Ecofeminism is a radical theory, not a pragmatic one. So for ecofeminists, the dominance of masculinity and gender dualisms in global power structures lead to a politics of exploitation and harm. It connects two struggles, struggles against environmental harms and violence against women and other feminised lives. In connecting these struggles, it argues that they must be resisted together.

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Part 3: The language of liberalism and ecofeminism

Timing: 10 minutes

You have learned throughout this short course how true/false simplifications do not always capture all the important features of IR theories. In the previous section, you built up your understanding by comparing the approaches taken by two theories. In this section, you will build your understanding of liberalism and ecofeminism by comparing some of the key concepts that they use, and what these mean.

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In this section, you have learned about liberalism and ecofeminism. Both theories have produced ideas and words that have become part of everyday speech, but for which everyday uses do not always capture the more specific meanings that words have in their original context. It is useful to reflect on how and why there can be a stretching or distortion of meanings, sometimes because most people are not closely invested in the ins and outs of the theory and sometimes because it is easy to caricature positions that you disagree with.

In many ways, liberalism and ecofeminism look at similar questions, most obviously about human nature and the impact of social structures. On the one hand, liberalism is often linked to Enlightenment ideals such as rational thought and individual freedom. Its focus tends to be on the institutions and mechanisms for cooperation that can exist within the current system of international relations to ensure equal access to resources and opportunities. By contrast, ecofeminism takes a more critical approach to the current system of international relations, informed by the contention that it is inherently structured around the domination of women and nature (as well as other hierarchies), and fails to take seriously alternative approaches to social organisation, including indigenous perspectives.